TY  - JOUR
AU  - Shapiro,Matthew D.
AU  - Slemrod,Joel
TI  - Consumer Response to Tax Rebates
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 8672
PY  - 2001
Y2  - December 2001
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8672
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w8672.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Matthew D. Shapiro
Department of Economics
University of Michigan
611 Tappan St
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220
Tel: 734/764-5419
Fax: 734 764-2769
E-Mail: shapiro@umich.edu

Joel Slemrod
University of Michigan Business School
701 Tappan Street
Room R5396
Ann Arbor, MI  48109-1234
Tel: 734/936-3914
Fax: 734-615-4323
E-Mail: jslemrod@umich.edu
AB  - Many households received income tax rebates in 2001 of $300 or $600. These rebates represented advance payments of the tax cut from the new 10 percent tax bracket. Based on a survey of a representative sample of households, this paper finds that only 22 percent of households receiving the rebate would spent it. Instead, they would either save it or use it to pay off debt. This very low rate of spending represents a striking break with past behavior, which would have suggested a much higher rate of spending. The low spending rate implies that the tax rebate provided a very limited stimulus to aggregate demand.
ER  -