Scarred Consumption

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Malmendier, Ulrike; Shen, Leslie Sheng
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Berkeley
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MACROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7707
• DOI: 10.1257/mac.20210387
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 322-355
• 关键词: panel-data; earnings losses; habit formation; life-cycle; DYNAMICS; experiences; prices; POLICY; overconfidence; unemployment

摘要

We show that prior lifetime experiences can scar consumers. Consumers who have lived through times of unemployment exhibit persistent pessimism about their future financial situation and spend significantly less years later , controlling for income , employment , and other life -cycle consumption factors. Due to their experience -induced frugality , scarred consumers build up more wealth. We use a stochastic life -cycle model to show that financial constraints and traditional models of income and unemployment scarring fail to generate the negative relationship between past experiences and consumption. Instead, the relationship is consistent with experience -based learning. (JEL D12, D15, D91, E21, E24, G51)