Consumption Responses to a Large Shock to Financial Wealth: Evidence from Italy

We estimate marginal propensities to consume from wealth shocks. We exploit large asset-price shocks in 2007-2008 and household-level panel data to implement instrumental variables. A fall of one euro in risky financial wealth resulted in cuts to annual total (non-durable) consumption of 8.5-9 (5.5-5.7) cents, with small effects on food spending. Effects seem stronger for lower-wealth or indebted households, but significant responses from wealthier households and those without mortgages are important for our baseline results. Counterfactuals indicate financial-wealth effects were relatively important for consumption falls in Italy in 2007-2008. The estimated effects are consistent with a simulated life-cycle model capturing the wealth shock.