研究 Initial 影响s of the Pandemic Reflect that Families Changed their Saving and 支出 Behavior

The coronavirus pandemic has swiftly changed the financial picture for American households largely 全面的. In order to better understand the economic impact of policies that were implemented in response to the virus, 比如居家令或刺激支出, policymakers and researchers are taking a close look at families’ financial behaviors like saving and spending. 研究 drawing on 澳博官方网站app 研究所 data sheds light on that picture, revealing important insights about the effects of the pandemic on households’ consumption and how government stimulus and insurance programs played a role.
 

澳博官方网站app研究所:
 

在一个 报告 作为 布鲁金斯学会经济活动论文, the 澳博官方网站app 研究所 draws on unique, de-identified banking data from U.S. households to investigate the effects of the pandemic on families’ spending and saving based on their income levels and industry of employment. 我们发现 全面的, 从3月到4月初，家庭都在削减开支, 同时, 增加流动资产余额.

Overall spending fell by more than 35 percent in the second half of March. 而消费在4月份开始增加, 直到5月底，它仍处于大幅低迷状态. 有趣的是, 4月中旬消费开始复苏, it recovers much more rapidly for low-income households than for high-income households. 与我们发现的收入模式一致, workers in industries with low average pay initially cut spending slightly less and then have spending which recovers more rapidly. 换句话说， a family’s income level appears to matter more for spending than their industry of employment.

关于储蓄行为, we find that household savings levels also increased by a substantial 35 percent. 这些 greater savings can largely be explained by two changes: a substantial decrease in spending that began in mid-March and federal government stimulus that provided unexpected income. Liquid balances increased the most for lower-income families, whose growth in savings seems to be attributed to an initial drop in spending paired with income from federal stimulus checks (Economic 影响 Payments) and expanded unemployment insurance benefits. For higher-income families, savings appear to be driven more by a substantial drop in spending.

While households who entered the pandemic with low levels of cash on hand saw their checking account balances shoot up around the time stimulus payments were received, 我们的分析显示，余额很快就开始下降, suggesting that the additional funds have been used up fairly rapidly.

也许令人惊讶的是, we find that lower-income families drove a larger share of the 整体 increase in savings seen across income levels. While higher-income families saved more in dollar terms, the disproportionate share of increasing savings for lower-income families means a shift in the distribution of wealth towards lower-income households. Liquid wealth inequality decreased between February and May—implying an almost two percentage point decline in the share of liquid wealth held by the highest-income families.

为什么重要:

As policymakers consider how to support economic recovery most effectively, it will be important to continue watching what happens to families’ levels of spending and savings. While it may be too soon to draw hard conclusions, there is reason to think that the gains in wealth distribution for lower-income families may not be permanent and the pandemic could have impacts on savings that, 整体, 加剧了危机前就存在的贫富差距. 没有额外的政府刺激, households who face job loss may need to spend what they have saved (or take on debt) just to keep up with bills and necessary expenses, whereas those with job security still receive income and may save more than they would otherwise just by nature of there being fewer places open to spend.

最后, 研究所研究 has repeatedly demonstrated the importance of liquid savings for maintaining financial resilience during times of uncertainty, and this recent 报告 demonstrates the meaningful role for government support in stabilizing financial disruptions that families have experienced during the current pandemic.

The disproportionate increase in savings seen from lower-income families, 例如, 很可能反映了这样一个事实 stimulus checks and expanded unemployment insurance benefits provided a substantially more important income cushion for lower-income households 高于高收入家庭. Depending on the extent to which these disruptions continue, policymakers need to consider that more funding to lower-income families may be necessary to maintain their spending and prevent hardship.

这些 findings draw from a longer paper which was 作为 the  布鲁金斯学会经济活动论文2020年6月25日. 点击这里阅读该研究所的更多研究.