The Reaction of Consumer Spending and Debt to Tax Rebates -- Evidence from Consumer Credit Data

We would like to thank the editor and two referees, Bob Hunt, Alan Krueger, Joanne Maselli, Larry Mielnicki, Jim Papadonis, Jonathan Parker, Anthony Santomero, Joel Slemrod, Melvin Stephens, and seminar participants at the European Central Bank, Princeton University, the ASSA meetings, Harvard University, the Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Chicago, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Singapore Management University, National Singapore University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the University of Nevada-Reno, the 2003 NBER summer institute, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, and the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the Wharton Financial Institutions Center and the Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research. We are grateful to Diana Andrade and Ron Kwolek for their excellent research assistance. The views expressed are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily represent those of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago or the National Bureau of Economic Research.