Journal Article

Household debt and the dynamic effects of income tax changes

Publication details

Publication date
Published in
Review of Economic Studies
Publisher
Blackwell
ISSN
346527

Summary

Using a new narrative measure of fiscal policy shocks for the U.K., we show that households with mortgage debt exhibit large and significant consumption responses to tax changes. Homeowners without a mortgage, in contrast, do not adjust their expenditure, with responses not statistically different from zero at all horizons. We compare our findings to the predictions of traditional and newer theories of liquidity constraints, providing a novel interpretation for the aggregate effects of tax changes on the macroeconomy.

Notes

Online Early

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