“锯齿周期”消费模型与中国居民消费行为分析

传统文化中的诸多特点使得中国居民形成了新的微观基础,铸就了异于"生命周期"式的"锯齿周期"式消费路径;转轨时期体制变迁引致的不确定性进一步加剧了这种阶段性的消费行为。该文根据跨时最优选择理论建立了居民消费函数的一般结构,获得在不确定性和流动性双重约束下的居民消费函数,根据时间序列分析得出结论:转轨时期的不确定对居民消费影响明显,不确定性每提高1%,当期消费将降低0.569%,借贷约束对消费影响不显著。     

中国家庭资产配置与异质性消费者行为分析

中国居民家庭存在"资产规模增长、结构多元化"与"消费需求相对不足"共存的现象。在此背景下,研究资产结构对消费者行为的影响显得尤为重要。本文根据资产结构识别异质性消费者,综合了流动性约束和预防性储蓄理论,通过估计暂时性收入冲击下的边际消费倾向,以及不确定性引致的财富积累,探讨了不同资产结构下异质性消费者行为的差异。本文不仅验证了资产变现难易程度对消费路径平滑和流动性约束的作用,同时发现了住房资产通过影响预防性储蓄行为,导致了流动性约束程度的差异。本文从资产流动性和住房资产需求角度,结合家庭"住房资产占总资产比重高与需求刚性较强"的典型事实,为中国居民消费需求相对不足的原因提供了一种解释,有助于把握消费刺激政策的着力点,进而增强消费对经济发展的基础性作用。     

消费行为与外汇储备增长:两期模型分析

文章在一个两期模型中分析居民消费行为与外汇储备增长之间的关系。在跨时期的消费决策中,由于未来收入和支出的不确定性以及消费的流动性约束,我国居民存在对未来消费的显著偏好,这是造成我国国际收支顺差和外汇储备持续增长的微观基础和内在动因。文章认为,人民币升值并不能从根本上解决这一问题,逐步改变居民消费偏好才是缓解外汇储备过快增长的有效途径。     

预防性储蓄、流动性约束与中国居民消费计量分析

一、引言 近年来,消费理论研究领域出现了两个引人注目的分支:预防性储蓄和流动性约束假说,这对于分析中国的居民消费行为提供了一个崭新的视角,因为1978年以来的消费波动确实存在着许多传统理论难以解释的问题。目前,国内已经有学者开始运用这些新理论对消费问题进行研究。宋铮(1999)较早地把收入的不确定性对中国居民储蓄的影响定量化,这无疑是一个很重要的开端,但他对预期值的处理过于简单化,不确定性变量的选取也欠准确。之     

不确定性预期下赣州农村居民消费实证研究

赣州农村地区居民消费受到不确定性预期的影响很大,这种不确定性预期是来自多方面的。论文从"流动性约束影响"和"收入不确定性预期影响"两个方面对农村居民消费影响做实证分析研究;针对不确定性预期对赣州农村居民消费带来的负面效应,提出相应对策建议。     

流动性约束、政府消费替代与中国居民消费波动

本文借用两个相关的模型探讨流动性约束和政府消费替代对于我国居民消费过度波动现象的解释力,发现流动性约束和政府消费分别通过弱化居民消费跨期优化能力和增强其对居民消费替代作用的渠道来增加居民消费波动,且前者的作用强于后者。本文同时发现流动性约束的增加减损居民福利,而政府消费替代比例的增加则能提高居民福利。     

LIQUIDITY CONSTRAINT, GOVERNMENT CONSUMPTION SUBSTITUFION AND HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION VOLATILITY IN CHINA

本文借用两个相关的模型探讨流动性约束和政府消费替代对于我国居民消费过度波动现象的解释力,发现流动性约束和政府消费分别通过弱化居民消费跨期优化能力和增强其对居民消费替代作用的渠道来增加居民消费波动,且前者的作用强于后者.本文同时发现流动性约束的增加减损居民福利,而政府消费替代比例的增加则能提高居民福利.     

房价上涨影响居民消费的作用机制分析——基于预防性储蓄效应视角

通过引入流动性约束和不确定性等因素,分析了房价波动影响居民消费的预防性储蓄效应这一作用机制。研究发现,不论是从长期还是短期来看,房价上涨通过预防性储蓄效应对居民消费产生负面影响,换言之,房价上涨通过不确定性因素和流动性约束导致居民预防性储蓄增加最终会使居民消费下降,短期内预防性储蓄效应的影响系数要小于其长期影响系数。     

信贷约束对中国居民消费的影响研究

信贷约束可能导致消费对收入的可预测变化的过度敏感性.中国居民消费行为的现实表现,证实了信贷约束对居民即期消费的潜在影响.本文运用现代消费理论分析了信贷约束对中国居民消费行为的作用程度,从制度上探讨了这种作用的深层次原因,并提出了相应对策.     

消费信贷、信用约束与经济增长

近几年来，消费问题成为宏观经济问题研究的重点。1996年以来中国人民银行连续8次降息，但居民消费仍然疲软。对于这一现象，万广华等(2001)提出中国的居民消费主要受流动性约束，降息不能刺激消费。中国消费信贷市场的落后，使得中国居民受到信用约束，与银行的关系只是简单地表现为金融的单向服务的不对称状态。中国居民的储蓄率居高不下，被称为金融抑制型强制储蓄。在这样的背景下消费信贷作为一种解决流动性约束的     

Liquidity constraint,uncertainty and household consumption in China

This paper investigates the changing roles played by liquidity constraint and uncertainty in accounting for the dynamism of Chinese household consumption behaviour. Starting from the Euler equation-based model of Robert Hall, a framework encompassing an array of consumption models is developed and applied to Chinese data over the period 1961?1998. Empirical results reveal a regime shift in the early 1980s and imply that increases in the proportion of liquidity constrained consumers and increased uncertainty in the post-reform period are responsible for the extremely low consumption or high savings in China. Moreover, it is found that interactions between liquidity constraint and uncertainty reinforce each other's effects and lead to declines in both the level and growth of consumption.     

Precautionary saving under liquidity constraints: evidence from Italy

I empirically investigate precautionary savings under liquidity constraints in Italy using a unique indicator of subjective variance of income growth to measure the strength of the precautionary motive for saving, and a variety of survey-based indicators of liquidity constraints. The main contribution of the paper is twofold. First of all, I attempt to differentiate between the standard precautionary saving caused by uncertainty from the one due to liquidity constraints using an endogenous switching regression approach, which allows me to cope with endogeneity issues associated with sample splitting techniques. Second, I move one step further with respect to previous studies on consumption behaviour by taking explicitly expected liquidity constraints into account. I eventually found the precautionary motive for savings to be stronger for those households who face binding constraints, or expect constraints to be binding in the future. Indeed, a complementarity relation exists between precautionary savings and liquidity constraints.     

Private consumption behaviour, liquidity constraints and financial deregulation in France: a nonlinear analysis

This paper examines the effect of financial deregulation on consumption expenditure in France during the period 1970–1993. A nonlinear model for consumption which allows for liquidity constraints through a time-varying parameter dependent on a proxy for financial deregulation is estimated using nonlinear instrumental variables. It is concluded that in France financial deregulation has significantly reduced liquidity constraints faced by consumers, allowing a higher percentage of the population to smooth consumption over time. Evidence is also provided that the intertemporal elasticity of substitution is not significantly different from zero at conventional nominal levels of significance. First version received: January 1997/final version received: May 1999     

流动性约束和不确定性状态下的预防性储蓄研究-中国城乡居民的消费特征分析

该文利用我国城乡时间序列数据,对城乡居民的消费特征做了新的探索.我们对引入预期收入增长的对数线性欧拉方程和二阶泰勒近似的欧拉方程进行了估计,结果说明,当期收入仍是决定我国居民消费的主要因素,消费的随机游走假说不成立;城镇居民比农村居民有更强的预防性储蓄动机.1990年代中期以来持续走低的收入增长率直接抑制了消费需求的增长,而仍然偏紧的流动性约束和日益增强的不确定性增大了预防性储蓄动机.     

Endogenous Debt Constraints in Lifecycle Economies

We characterize competitive equilibria with perfect foresight in a deterministic, three-period pure-exchange overlapping generations economy with perfect information and no commitment to loan contracts. Commitment is replaced by an enforcement mechanism that excludes defaulters from asset markets for one period. For hump-shaped endowment profiles, young individuals face endogenous debt constraints that ration current consumption. Changes in current and future yields affect these constraints, inducing an additional income effect on rationed household demand that makes current and future consumption complements. This mechanism can lead to multiple steady states, persistent indeterminacy and regime switching. We show that sensitivity to shocks and complex dynamic behaviour are consistent with endogenous debt limits but not with exogenous liquidity constraints.     

Precautionary saving under liquidity constraints: Evidence from rural Pakistan

This paper investigates precautionary saving under liquidity constraints in Pakistan using household panel data. In particular, while it estimates Kimball's [Kimball, M.S. Precautionary saving in the small and in the large. Econometrica 1990; 58; 53–73.] prudence parameter based on a framework that is similar to Dynan [Dynan, K.E. How prudent are consumers? Journal of Political Economy 1993; 101; 1104–1113.], this study deviates from the framework by explicitly considering liquidity constraints, as in Zeldes [Zeldes, S.P. Consumption and liquidity constraints: an empirical investigation. Journal of Political Economy 1989; 97; 305–346.]. By doing so, this paper attempts to differentiate the standard precautionary saving caused by uncertainty from that caused by liquidity constraints. Furthermore, endogenous liquidity constraints are used in order to resolve issues of selection biases. We find substantial evidence of the presence of precautionary saving in Pakistan. More specifically, the estimated prudence is significantly higher for liquidity-constrained households as compared with unconstrained ones. The finding suggests that the precautionary saving motives appear stronger when households see that their access to credit markets is limited.     

Occupational choice and liquidity constraints

Using U.S. data, Evans and Jovanovic find a strong effect of the level of assets on the probability of being self-employed. They interpret this result as evidence of liquidity constraints. In this paper, we follow up this line of research: first, by replicating Evans and Jovanovic's methodology on French data to show that the empirical evidence is similar. Second, we embed their static model into a dynamic framework with uncertainty. The main theoretical prediction that can be drawn is that if the liquidity constraint is strong enough a future increase in the “entrepreneurial ability” of an agent, although raising expected future incomes, may induce her to lower her current consumption and raise her savings.     

When expectations become aspirations: reference-dependent preferences and liquidity constraints

A large body of literature suggests that consumers derive utility from gains and losses relative to a reference point. This paper shows that such reference dependence can affect savings in opposite directions depending on whether people face liquidity constraints. Existing models for wealth and intertemporal choice predict that reference dependence reduces savings, but these models abstract from liquidity constraints. Introducing a liquidity constraint, I find that reference dependence can increase optimal savings for people without access to credit. Ex post, after reference points have been formed, liquidity constraints force consumers to take part of an income loss in early periods, inducing those who are reference dependent to concentrate the full loss in early periods and save in order to eliminate future losses. Further, anticipating a liquidity constraint raises the expected level of future consumption and thus the expectations-based reference point for future periods, creating an ex-ante savings motive. These findings underscore that it is important to account for financial market imperfections when applying or testing reference-dependent models in low-income settings, and potentially explain heterogeneity in how much the poor save when facing binding liquidity constraints.     

Liquidity constraints and labor supply

In this paper we shed some light on how restrictions in financial markets, the so-called liquidity constraints, might act in affecting labour supply decisions of Italian workers. One way to neutralize the existence of binding liquidity constraints is simply by supplying additional labor, instead of reducing consumption. We estimate whether resorting to additional labor supply as a smoothing consumption device is at work by using the Italian Survey of Households Income and Wealth (SHIW). The longitudinal dimension of the SHIW dataset allows us to control for individual unobserved heterogeneity. We also use an IV strategy to address the endogeneity of our measure for credit constraints in labor supply equations due to time varying factors.Our results show that liquidity constraints increase the intensity in the supply of men׳s labor. Constrained men work, on average, 4 hours more than their unconstrained counterpart. Self-employed workers turn out to be more sensitive to binding liquidity constraints, possibly because they are more flexible in adjusting the intensity of their labor supply.     

Private consumption,public consumption and liquidity constraints in developing countries: some empirical evidence

This paper extends the empirical work of Giovannini (1983, 1985) in seeking to identify the elasticity of substitution in consumption in developing countries using the Euler equation approach. Allowing for liquidity constraints in capital markets which force a percentage of aggregate consumption growth to track income growth to track income growth, we report static and time-varying estimates of this percentage and the elasticity of intertemporal substitution, as well as estimates of substitution between private and public consumption and implied utility function parameters. Our results suggest that liquidity constraints are a pervasive feature of developing country consumption data and that the elasticity of intertemporal substitution is near-zero for the majority of countries considered.