Deconstructing Life Cycle Expenditure

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Aguiar, Mark; Hurst, Erik
• 署名单位: Princeton University; University of Chicago
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/670740
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 437-492
• 关键词: consumption; allocation; household; INEQUALITY; demand; income

摘要

We revisit two well-known facts regarding life cycle expenditures: the hump-shaped profile of nondurable expenditures and the increase in cross-household consumption inequality. We document that the behavior of total nondurables masks surprising heterogeneity in the life cycle profile of individual consumption subcomponents. We provide evidence that the categories driving life cycle consumption either are inputs into market work or are amenable to home production. Using a quantitative model, we document that the disaggregated life cycle consumption profiles imply a level of uninsurable permanent income risk that is substantially lower than that implied by a model using a composite consumption good.