The wealth affect literature is skimpy and not very good, and heck, the Keynesian consumption function that pretty much every model uses doesn’t even have a wealth term.
Interesting, I just pulled this the other day. Average (mean) bottom-20 household has 18 K in checking deposit assets and 200 K in total assets. even while that quintile’s income caps at $32K. America is a very rich country…
If you’re looking at the consumer expenditure survey, it’s tally of household expenditures this is about 40% of BEA personal consumption expenditures. And it’s surveyed income measures are also dicey. It’s excellent for knowing which income quintiles do which shares of consumption, though.
Good point. Much of the dissaving is by the bottom 20%, which probably consists of many retirees with low incomes who are spending down their accumulated assets.
https://twitter.com/asymptosis/status/1755563199238431211
https://twitter.com/asymptosis/status/1755633196522409995