CONSUMER SPENDING AND PROPERTY TAXES

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Surico, Paolo; Trezzi, Riccardo
• 署名单位: University of London; London Business School; Federal Reserve System - USA; Center for Economic & Policy Research (CEPR)
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1093/jeea/jvy008
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 606-649
• 关键词: household debt; consumption

摘要

A sudden and temporary change to the Italian property tax system in 2011 generated significant variation in the amount of taxes paid across home-owners. Using new questions appositely added to the Survey on Household Income and Wealth, we exploit this cross-sectional variation to provide an unprecedented analysis of the consumption effects of a tax on housing wealth. A tax hike on the main dwelling leads to large expenditure cuts among mortgagors, who hold low liquid wealth despite owning sizable illiquid assets. In contrast, higher tax rates on other residential properties affect affluent households, thereby having a modest impact on their consumer spending. Our results provide novel and direct evidence in favor of recent theories that highlight the role of household debt in the transmission of economic policies.