International Wealth Effects

Abstract

This paper presents a detailed investigation of the wealth effect for 16 industrial countries using the recently proposed technique that exploits the sluggishness of consumption growth. I argue that, compared to the widespread cointegration-based methodology, the approach I apply has better theoretical foundations and is more immune to parameter instability. Empirically, this new technique implies smaller magnitude of the wealth effect in the G-8 countries and larger size of the income effect. I also document that the wealth effect tends to be larger in countries with more developed financial markets and has decreased substantially in the last twenty years.