Intertemporal consumption and lifecycle in a pandemic context: an experimental approximation

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic generated uncertainty among consumers, a slowdown in consumption and an increase of the added saving at world level, the microeconomic evidence showed a tendency towards dissaving and growing consumption. These variations activate questioning about the consequences of confinement in intertemporal consumption, at the same time they allow to provide new empirical evidence about life-cycle models in their standard or neoclassical and behavioral versions. The purpose of this work was to experimentally evaluate the intertemporal consumption patterns from the postulates of both life cycle models. To this end, an experimental simulation exercise of online purchases of commodities was carried out with the participation of 210 consumers who were subjected to treatments that included a baseline, income increase scenarios and no-income withdrawal scenarios. The results verified the existence of consistent responses with the behavioral model in 85% of the cases and with the standard model for the remaining 15%; that is, the tendencies to smooth consumption and increase savings were in the minority in the group evaluated and the confinement context did not translate into more self-controlled intertemporal consumption behaviors.

Keywords

• saving
• economic behavior
• consumer
• experimental method
• decision theory