2020, Arlene Wong, "Initial Impacts of the Pandemic on Consumer Behavior Based on Evidence from Linked Income, Spending, and Savings Data"

Consumer purchases in late March 2020 were more than 35 percent lower than in the same period the previous year, according to detailed data on household credit and debit card charges and banking transactions. While the drop occurred in all income groups, and all groups subsequently recovered, by late May, spending by those in the lowest income quartile was only 10 percent lower than a year earlier, while spending by highest quartile households remained down by over 20 percent. Faculty Research Fellows Peter Ganong, Joseph Vavra, and Arlene Wong, and their collaborators Natalie Bachas, Diana Farrell, Fiona Greig, and Pascal Noel, report these findings, and also document a sharp increase in liquid balances for many households, in a recent working paper (27617). Wong summarizes their findings in the short video above.