Working Paper
From Transactions Data to Economic Statistics: Constructing Real-time, High-frequency, Geographic Measures of Consumer Spending
Aron-Dine, Shifrah; Dunn, Wendy E.; Lengermann, Paul; Feiveson, Laura; Sahm, Claudia R.; Aladangady, Aditya (2019-08)
Access to timely information on consumer spending is important to economic policymakers. The Census Bureau's monthly retail trade survey is a primary source for monitoring consumer spending nationally, but it is not well suited to study localized or short-lived economic shocks. Moreover, lags in the publication of the Census estimates and subsequent, sometimes large, revisions diminish its usefulness for real-time analysis. Expanding the Census survey to include higher frequencies and subnational detail would be costly and would add substantially to respondent burden. We take an alternative ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2019-057

Discussion Paper
The Effect of Sales-Tax Holidays on Consumer Spending
Aladangady, Aditya; Aron-Dine, Shifrah; Dunn, Wendy E.; Feiveson, Laura; Lengermann, Paul; Sahm, Claudia R. (2017-03-24)
Over the past decade, many U.S. states have enacted policies that temporarily exempt consumer purchases of certain goods from state sales taxes. In this note, we investigate whether the pre-announced sales-tax holidays noticeably alter the spending behavior of consumers. Specifically, we investigate whether there are shifts in the level and/or composition of consumer spending before, during, and after these sales-tax holidays.
FEDS Notes , Paper 2017-03-24

Discussion Paper
The Effect of Hurricane Matthew on Consumer Spending
Aron-Dine, Shifrah; Dunn, Wendy E.; Lengermann, Paul; Feiveson, Laura; Sahm, Claudia R.; Aladangady, Aditya (2016-12-02)
In this note, we take a step forward in this regard using a new dataset of transaction volumes to examine how consumers reacted to Hurricane Matthew, which struck the East Coast in October 2016.
FEDS Notes , Paper 2016-12-02

Discussion Paper
High-frequency Spending Responses to the Earned Income Tax Credit
Aladangady, Aditya; Aron-Dine, Shifrah; Cashin, David B.; Dunn, Wendy E.; Feiveson, Laura; Lengermann, Paul; Richard, Katherine; Sahm, Claudia R. (2018-06-21)
Many households face large, high-frequency changes in income and have limited financial buffers to smooth their consumption through this income volatility. However, few studies have quantified spending responses to such timing shifts in income due to a lack of high-frequency spending data. We use a new dataset of anonymized daily, state-level spending to study a two-week delay in federal tax refunds with an earned income tax credit (EITC) in 2017.
FEDS Notes , Paper 2018-06-21