The DHSY Model and Asymmetric Consumption

Alan Carruth and Andrew Dickerson

Studies in Economics from School of Economics, University of Kent

Abstract: The failure of models of aggregate consumption to predict the consumer expenditure boom in the late 1980s is well- documented. This has generated a large theoretical and empirical literature in an attempt to refine our understanding of aggregate consumer spending behaviour. In this paper we assess the possibility that, in the aggregate, consumers respond differently to different types of disequilibrium error. We illustrate the idea using an Engle-Granger approach to the DHSY model. The disequilibrium error is endogenously determined by the empirical model and a binary dummy variable captures two alternative states (above and below equilibrium), which is then interacted in a dynamic empirical model of consumer spending. Income elasticities, inflation elasticities and speeds of adjustment are all seen to change significantly in response to the type of disequilibrium error, suggesting some form of asymmetric behaviour on the part of consumers. Moreover, the asymmetrically augmented DHSY model substantially outperforms the standard DHSY model with standard error improvements in excess of 50%.

Keywords: Aggregate consumption; asymmetric behaviour; DHSY; Engle-Granger (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E21 E32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1997-04
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
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:ukc:ukcedp:9702

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
a.mitra@kent.ac.uk

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Studies in Economics from School of Economics, University of Kent School of Economics, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7FS.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Dr Anirban Mitra (a.mitra@kent.ac.uk).