Replication data for: Consumption Inequality over the Last Half Century: Some Evidence Using the New PSID Consumption Measure

This paper contributes to the debate regarding trends in consumption inequality in the United States. We present a new measure of consumption inequality based on the redesigned 1999–2011 PSID. We impute consumption to the families observed before 1999 using the more comprehensive consumption data available from 1999 onward. One advantage of this procedure is in sample verification of the quality of the imputation procedure; another is that it yields a long time series (1967–2010). Consumption inequality was stable in the 1970s, as was income inequality. It increased significantly after 1980. The Great Recession was associated with a decline in consumption inequality.

本文为美国消费不平等趋势相关的学术辩论提供了新的研究贡献。基于1999—2011年重新设计的收入动态追踪调查（Panel Study of Income Dynamics, PSID），本文提出了一种全新的消费不平等测度方法。我们利用1999年起可获取的更全面的消费数据，对1999年之前受访家庭的消费数据进行插补。该方法的优势之一在于可通过样本内验证对插补流程的质量进行检验；其二是能够生成覆盖1967至2010年的长时序数据集。研究结果显示：20世纪70年代，消费不平等与收入不平等均维持稳定；1980年之后，消费不平等显著上升；而大衰退（Great Recession）则与消费不平等的下降相关联。