Handbook of US Consumer Economics

Handbook of U.S. Consumer Economics presents a deep understanding on key, current topics and a primer on the landscape of contemporary research on the U.S. consumer. This volume reveals new insights into household decision-making on consumption and saving, borrowing and investing, portfolio allocation, demand of professional advice, and retirement choices. Nearly 70% of U.S. gross domestic product is devoted to consumption, making an understanding of the consumer a first order issue in macroeconomics. After all, understanding how households played an important role in the boom and bust cycle that led to the financial crisis and recent great recession is a key metric.

1. Empirical Analysis of the U.S. Consumer: Fact, Fiction, and the Future Benjamin Mandel 2. Trends in Household Debt and Credit Andrew Haughwout, Donghoon Lee, Joelle Scally, Lauren Thomas and Wilbert van der Klaauw 3. Trends in Household Portfolio Composition Jesse Bricker, Kevin B. Moore and Jeffrey Pierce Thompson 4. Household Debt and Recession in Brazil Gabriel Garber, Atif Mian, Jacopo Ponticelli and Amir Sufi 5. Rationality in the Consumer Credit Market: Choosing between Alternative and Mainstream Credit Sumit Agarwal and Marieke Bos 6. How do consumers respond to real income shocks? Fiona Greig and Amar Hamoudi 7. Spending To and Through Retirement Katherine Roy, Je Oh, Sharon Carson and Joseph Marlo 8. Are millennials different? Christopher Kurz, Geng Li and Daniel J. Vine 9. China’s Consumer Spending E-Commerce: Facts and Evidence from JD’s Festival Online Sales Wei Tian, Yang Yang and Miaojie Yu 10. Consumer Expectations and the Macroeconomy Giorgio Topa 11. Macro Forecasting Using Alternative Data Apurv Jain 12. Regional price parities in the United States Bettina Aten 13. Measuring Prices and Real Household Consumption of Medical Goods: Service based versus disease based approaches Ralph Bradley and Brett Matsumoto 14. A Brief History of the Supplemental Poverty Measure Thesia Garner and Liana Fox