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Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary
We show that prior lifetime experiences can "scar" consumers. Consumers who have lived through times of unemployment exhibit persistent pessimism about their future financial situation and spend significantly less years later, controlling for income, employment, and other life-cycle consumption factors. Due to their experience-induced frugality, scarred consumers build up more wealth. We use a stochastic life-cycle model to show that financial constraints and traditional models of income and unemployment scarring fail to generate the negative relationship between past experiences and consumption, while it is consistent with experience-based learning.

Scope of Project

JEL Classification:  View help for JEL Classification
      D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
      D15 Intertemporal Household Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
      D83 Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
      D91 Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
      G51 Household Finance: Household Saving, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth


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