Suchergebnisse

We exploit a quasi-experiment to provide new evidence on the magnitude of the housing wealth effect. We estimate an immediate shock of approximately -15% to house prices close to one of Stockholm's airports after its operations were unexpectedly continued as a result of political bargaining. This source of price variation is ideal to identify housing wealth effects since it is local and unrelated to variation in macroeconomic conditions. Using a household data set with granular geographic information on location of primary residence, we find an elasticity of 0.45 among purchasers of new cars. Converting our estimate to an aggregate MPC on cars, it is however only 0.13 cents per dollar. The MPC is entirely concentrated to homeowners with a combined loan-to-value ratio between 0.6 and 0.8 which, on the one hand, confirms the key role of household balance sheets but on the other hand refutes a monotone relationship between response and household leverage

We exploit a quasi-experiment that occurred in Stockholm in 2007 to provide new evidence on the magnitude of the housing wealth e.ect. Stockholm's smaller city airport was expected to close in 2011 but its operating contract was unexpectedly renewed after political negotiation behind closed doors. We estimate an immediate shock of approximately -17% to house prices close to the airport. Using a household data set with granular geographic information on primary residence, we find an elasticity among purchasers of new cars equal to 0.5. Converting our estimate to an aggregate MPC on cars, it is however less than 0.2 cents per dollar which in turn is likely to imply an MPC less than 3 cents per dollar on all goods and services. The effect is concentrated to homeowners with a loan-to-value ratio between 0.6 and 0.8, highlighting the role of credit and mortgage markets also in normal economic times.

AbstractWe examine the effect of monetary policy on household spending when households are indebted and interest rates on outstanding loans are linked to short-term interest rates. Using administrative data on balance sheets and consumption expenditure of Swedish households, we reveal the cash-flow transmission channel of monetary policy. On average, indebted households reduce consumption spending by an additional 0.23–0.55 percentage points in response to a one-percentage-point increase in the policy rate, relative to a household with no debt. We show that these responses are driven by households that have some or a large share of their debt in contracts where interest rates vary with short-term interest rates, such as adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), which implies that monetary policy shocks are quickly passed through to interest expenses.

Homeownership is widely stimulated by policy, yet its economic effects are poorly understood. We exploit quasi-random variation in homeownership generated by privatization decisions of municipally owned buildings and use granular data on demographics, income, housing, financial wealth, and debt that allow us to construct high-quality measures of spending. Homeownership causes wealth accumulation via house price appreciation, increases consumption, and improves consumption smoothing across time and states of the world. It increases mobility for young households, who move up the property ladder, and amplifies wealth accumulation for older households, who take more risk in their financial portfolio. (JEL D15, E21, G51, R21, R23, R31, R38)