CONSUMER DURABLES AND THE INTEREST RATE

This paper investigates the relationship between consumption of a durable good and the interest rate. According to the standard Permanent Income Hypothesis (PIH), a rise in the interest rate is expected to decrease durables consumption, and the magnitude of the interest rate effect should meet certain restrictions. This implication of the PIH is tested using US data. Empirical results of this paper indicate that, although durables consumption is negatively correlated with the interest rate, the magnitude of the estimated effect is substantially smaller than requested by the standard theory. This suggests that the influence of monetary policy on durables expenditure may not be as large as previous authors claim. In attempts to explain the small effects of the interest rate, frictions such as adjustment costs and liquidity constraints are examined. [E21]