Has consumption inequality mirrored wealth inequality in the Survey of Consumer Finances?

Brant Abbott and Robin Brace

Economics Letters, 2020, vol. 193, issue C

Abstract: A method to impute consumption expenditure inequality between wealth groups in the Survey of Consumer Finances is provided, allowing for measurement error that is correlated with income and wealth. Identification is derived from observing food at home and away, which are relative necessities and luxuries, respectively. The gap in expenditure between top and bottom wealth quintiles increased by 50% between 2004 and 2013, indicating that increases in wealth inequality have passed through to consumption.

Keywords: Inequality, Wealth, Income, Consumption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D31 E21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176520301920
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
Working Paper: Has Consumption Inequality Mirrored Wealth Inequality in the Survey of Consumer Finances? (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:193:y:2020:i:c:s0165176520301920

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109289

Access Statistics for this article

Economics Letters is currently edited by Economics Letters Editorial Office

More articles in Economics Letters from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().