https://doi.org/10.52903/wp2024326
DOES UNCERTAINTY MATTER FOR HOUSEHOLD CONSUMPTION? A MEAN AND A TWO TAILS APPROACH
Konstantina Manou
Bank of Greece
Evangelia Papapetrou
Bank of Greece and National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
ABSTRACT
This paper complements the existing literature on the relationship between uncertainty and private consumption expenditure for a panel of 14-euro area countries over the period 1997 to 2021. We account for uncertainty by employing composite, economic and financial risk indices and utilize alternative panel estimators with heterogeneous coefficients and an error term to consider cross-country heterogeneity. Further, we explore the effect of uncertainty on household consumption over its conditional distribution. In addition, considering the differences in economic and financial systems across the countries examined, we gauge the heterogeneous effects of uncertainty on household consumption spending. The empirical evidence substantiates the impact of uncertainty on consumption expenditures and uncovers a significant effect between uncertainty and consumption expenditure along the conditional consumption distribution. Notably, this finding appears to be stronger for the lower quantiles of the consumption distribution, reckoning the presence of asymmetries in the relationship. Our analysis has documented the importance of uncertainty in understanding and explaining consumption behavior.
JEL-classifications:D80, E44, D12
Keywords: Consumption; uncertainty; wealth; liabilities; quantile regression
Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the authors and not those of their respective institutions.
Correspondence:
Evangelia Papapetrou
Bank of Greece,
21 E. Venizelos Avenue,
102 50, Athens, Greece.
tel: +30 210 320 2377
fax: +30 210 323 3025
email: epapapetrou@bankofgreece.gr