Accelerator or Brake? Cash for Clunkers, Household Liquidity, and Aggregate Demand

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Green, Daniel; Melzer, Brian T.; Parker, Jonathan A.; Rojas, Arcenis
• 署名单位: Harvard University; Dartmouth College; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20170122
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 178-211
• 关键词: tax policy; INVESTMENT; consumption; debt; constraints; incentives; DYNAMICS

摘要

This paper evaluates the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) by comparing the vehicle purchases and disposals of households with eligible clunkers to those of households with similar but ineligible vehicles. CARS caused roughly 500,000 purchases during the program period. The provision of liquidity, through a rebate usable as a down payment, was critical in generating this large response. Participation was rare among households that owned clunkers with outstanding loans, which required loan repayment. This decline in participation is attributed to households' preference for lower down payments and distinguished from the effects of income, other indebtedness, and the program subsidy.