How Do Households Respond to Job Loss? Lessons from Multiple High-Frequency Datasetst

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Andersen, Asger Lau; Jensen, Amalie Sofie; Johannesen, Niels; Kreiner, Claus Thustrup; Leth-Petersen, Soren; Sheridan, Adam
• 署名单位: University of Copenhagen
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-APPLIED ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7782
• DOI: 10.1257/app.20210206
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1-29
• 关键词: consumption commitments; unemployment; displacement; income; insurance; benefits; CONSEQUENCES; shocks; debt

摘要

How much and through which channels do households self-insure against job loss? Combining data from a large bank and from gov-ernment sources, we quantify a broad range of responses to job loss in a unified empirical framework. Cumulated over a two-year period, households reduce spending by 30 percent of their income loss. They mainly self-insure through adjustments of liquid balances, which account for 50 percent of the income loss. Other channels -spousal labor supply, private transfers, home equity extraction, mortgage refinancing, and consumer credit -contribute less to self-insurance. Both overall self-insurance and the channels vary with household characteristics in intuitive ways. (JEL D12, G21, G51, J64, J65)