Discussion Papers no. 156

The Norwegian experience

Financial deregulation and consumer behavior

The present paper uses the model by Campbell and Mankiw (1991) to examine the Norwegian consumer behavior and the role of the financial deregulation during the 1980s. For quarterly data on non-durables and services, we estimate the fraction of current income consumers to be in the range of 37% and 75% before the financial deregulation. This evidence indicates a substantial departure from the rational, forward-looking behavior, and there is thus reason to believe that liquidity constraints did bind the Norwegian consumer behavior until the mid 1980s. Our results further suggest that this evidence has disappeared after the financial deregulation in that the estimated fraction of current income consumers is essentially zero after 1985. This finding is so much more remarkable in that hardly any other aggregate time-series data set, from any country, conforms this closely with the forward-looking hypothesis.

Om publikasjonen

Tittel

Financial deregulation and consumer behavior. The Norwegian experience

Ansvarlige

Pål Boug, Trond Tjemsland, Knut Anton Mork

Serie og -nummer

Discussion Papers no. 156

Utgiver

Statistics Norway, Research Department

Emne

Discussion Papers

Antall sider

22

Målform

Engelsk

Om Discussion Papers

Discussion papers comprise research papers intended for international journals and books. A preprint of a Discussion Paper may be longer and more elaborate than a standard journal article as it may include intermediate calculations, background material etc.

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