How do house prices affect consumption? Evidence from micro data

John Y. Campbell () and Joao F. Cocco

No 304, 2004 Meeting Papers from Society for Economic Dynamics

Abstract: Housing wealth is a major component of households' wealth. Since house prices fluctuate considerably over time, an important question is how house price fluctuations affect households' consumption decisions. This may happen through at least two channels: (i) a wealth channel, or (ii) by relaxing or making borrowing constraints more severe. This paper investigates the response of household consumption to house prices using micro level data. We estimate a positive wealth effect on consumption of house price shocks for older households who are homewoners, and a negative wealth effect for young households who are renters. These are the households that are more likely to be long and short housing, respectively. We also find that consumption responds to predictable changes in house prices, an effect which is consistent with an increase in house prices relaxing borrowing constraints.

Keywords: House prices; consumption. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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Related works:
Working Paper: How Do House Prices Affect Consumption? Evidence From Micro Data (2005)
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Journal Article: How do house prices affect consumption? Evidence from micro data (2007)
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