Working Paper
The decline in household saving and the wealth effect
Juster, F. Thomas; Smith, James P.; Lupton, Joseph P.; Stafford, Frank (2004)
Using a unique set of household level panel data, we estimate the effect of capital gains on saving by asset type, controlling for observable and unobservable household specific fixed effects. The results suggest that the decline in the personal saving rate since 1984 is largely due to the significant capital gains in corporate equities experienced over this period. Over five-year periods, the effect of capital gains in corporate equities on saving is substantially larger than the effect of capital gains in housing or other assets. Failure to differentiate wealth affects across asset types ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2004-32

Working Paper
To leave or not to leave: the distribution of bequest motives
Lupton, Joseph P.; Kopczuk, Wojciech (2004)
In this paper, we examine the effect of observed and unobserved heterogeneity in the desire to die with positive net worth. Using a structural life-cycle model nested in a switching regression with unknown sample separation, we find that roughly 70 percent of the elderly single population has a bequest motive that may or may not be active depending on the level of resources at a given age. Both the presence and the magnitude of the bequest motive are statistically and economically significant. All else being equal, households with an operative bequest motive spend between $4,000 and $9,000 a ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2004-33

Working Paper
The household spending response to the 2003 tax cut: evidence from survey data
Lupton, Joseph P.; Sheiner, Louise; Coronado, Julia Lynn (2005)
The Jobs and Growth Tax Relief and Reconciliation Act of 2003 has been described as textbook fiscal stimulus. Using household survey data on the self-reported qualitative response to the tax cuts, we estimate that the boost to aggregate personal consumption expenditures from the child credit rebate and the reduction in withholdings raised the average level of real GDP in the second half of 2003 by 0.2 percent and by 0.3 percent in the first half of 2004. We also show that households in the survey were well aware of their tax cuts and tended to spend equally out of the child credit rebate and ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2005-32