Date of Award

6-2008

Document Type

Union College Only

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Stephen Schmidt

Language

English

Keywords

housing, regressions, slump, altered, appears

Abstract

Spillover effects of a troubled housing market have become increasingly relevant in the past few months. Many economists have hypothesized that a housing slump would lead to a subsequent slump in consumer spending. Using city-level data in the United States, obtained from 2001-2006, this paper finds that consumption is not altered by housing price fluctuations. Several approaches are taken to test this conclusion, including variations in OLS regressions and TSLS regressions. The finding is universal that there appears to be no housing wealth effect regardless of the magnitude of housing appreciation or depreciation.

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