Working Papers present research work by both Danmarks Nationalbank’s employees and our partners. Working Papers are primarily targeted at professionals and people with an interest in central banking research as well as economics and finance in a broader sense.

Monetary policy

Working Paper: Consumption Heterogeneity: Micro Drivers and Macro Implications

This paper aims to test the microfoundations of consumption models and quantify the macro implications of heterogeneity in consumption behavior. We propose a new empirical method to estimate the sensitivity of consumption to permanent and transitory income shocks and apply it to administrative data from Denmark. We find that households who stand to lose from an interest rate hike are more sensitive to income shocks than those who stand to gain. This interest rate exposure channel is potentially more important than the standard intertemporal substitution channel.