Income Growth and the Impact of Relative Price Changes on Age-based Consumption Patterns

Abstract

This analysis shows that age-based consumption profiles have been affected by differences in the growth rates of real income and prices since the onset of the Great Recession in 2008. In particular, it shows that the recession caused changes in both the absolute level of households’ consumption as well as the relative shares of income going to purchase necessities and luxuries, and that these changes differed by age group. It also shows that this shift occurred in spite of higher rates of price inflation for necessity goods relative to luxury items.