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A model of time‐allocation among work, leisure, and price‐search predicts that rational consumers pay relatively low prices for their preferred goods. Using scanner data, we confirm empirically the implication that consumers find better prices for items (defined by scanner codes, such as a 12‐pack of Pepsi) within categories (such as carbonated drinks) of which they consume relatively more. This provides direct evidence that consumers face constraints on time and/or attention, and that they rationally allocate these scarce resources to optimize welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We estimate the effects of deregulation of U.S. banking restrictions on interstate personal income insurance for the period 1970 to 2001. Interstate income insurance occurs when personal income reacts less than one-to-one to state-specific output shocks. We find that insurance improved after banking deregulation, with a larger effect in states where small businesses are more important and on proprietors' income than on other components of personal income. Our explanation centers on the role of banks as a prime source of small business finance and on the close intertwining of the personal and business finances of small business owners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

US consumption has gone through steep ups and downs since 2000. We quantify the statistical impact of income, unemployment, house prices, credit scores, debt, financial assets, expectations, foreclosures and inequality on county‐level consumption growth for four subperiods: the 'dot‐com recession' (2001–3), the 'subprime boom' (2004–6), the Great Recession (2007–9) and the 'tepid recovery' (2010–12). Consumption growth cannot be explained by a few factors; rather, it depends on a large number of variables whose explanatory power varies by subperiod. Growth of income, growth of housing wealth and fluctuations in unemployment are the most important determinants of consumption, significantly so in all subperiods, while fluctuations in financial assets and expectations are important during only some subperiods. Lagged variables, such as the share of subprime borrowers, are significant but less important. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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