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This study estimates the degree of the transmission of income shocks to consumption using the partial insurance model of Blundell et al. (2008) and data taken from the Japanese Panel Survey of Consumers that cover the recessions in the 2000s. The analysis finds that the transmission of permanent income shocks to consumption was insured by half, whereas transitory income shocks were almost fully insured. Meanwhile, permanent income shocks statistically did not change over this period, whereas transitory income shocks did. These results suggest that the partial insurance model does not contradict observational changes in consumption and income inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We used data from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) for the years 2004–2012 and examined the impact of economic shocks on the family's out-of-pocket health care spending burden. We defined this burden as the share of family income devoted to out-of-pocket health care spending. In contrast to static, cross-sectional analyses, our study examined how the within-family change in this spending burden over the 2-year MEPS observation period responded to losses in family income, insurance, and employment. To investigate the change in spending burden, we applied generalized linear health expenditure models using the correlated random effects method to control for time-invariant, unobserved heterogeneity across family units. We found evidence that the family's out-of-pocket spending burden increased with income losses, but that the change in total health care spending and in out-of-pocket spending were generally not sensitive to income shocks. These findings suggest that in the short run, income changes rather than changes in health spending per se appeared to drive changes in the out-of-pocket burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we exploit a lottery in Tanzania, which randomly assigned eligible participants to receive $100 cash grants. The randomized nature of the lottery allows us to estimate the causal impact of positive income shocks on risky sexual behavior. We found that winning the lottery led men to have 0.28 (95 % CI 0.14, 0.55) more sexual partners and to a 0.21 (95 % CI 0.01-0.4) increase in the probability of unprotected sex with a non-primary partner relative to a control group of eligible non-winners. We found no significant effect of winning the lottery on the sexual behavior of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate the relationship between income shocks and food insufficiency for U.S. households. Using Survey of Income and Program Participation data on U.S. households, we test the importance of both stable and transitory income components in determining food insufficiency. In a logistic regression model, we find that both the level of income and negative income shocks affect the predicted probability of food insufficiency, while positive income shocks do not. Although we do not have a definitive measure of a household's liquidity constraint status, our work suggests that negative shocks may matter more for households that face liquidity constraints. Understanding the role of income shocks in determining food insufficiency is especially important in light of recent policy changes. It is likely that welfare reform in the U.S. increased the volatility of income in the low-income population. Our findings here suggest that this increase in volatility may not be without consequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]