Learning about consumer behaviour in face of a structural break: Argentina after 2002

Abstract

This paper investigates how consumer behaviour is modified after a major structural break, taking into account two different kinds of models: one of them, an EquilibriumCorrection Model which includes the effects of "wealth perception” and the other one, focussed on deep parameters estimates following the Euler Equation-GMM approach. Liquidity constraints and hyperbolic discount functions are the main features that characterize Argentine consumption patterns after default and devaluation took place. Liquidity constraints are tested by an expectational form of the Equilibrium-Correction model and by asymmetric effects of income changes. A hyperbolic discount factor that allow for distinguishing short run from long run impatience are found to describe consumers’ decisions.