Consumer Durables and the Real Interest Rate
通过估计代表性消费者的效用函数结构参数，发现耐用消费品支出对利率变化的敏感度远高于非耐用品和服务，揭示了利率影响总需求的重要渠道。
One important channel through which real interest rates affect aggregate demand is consumer expenditure on durable goods.This paper examines empirically the link between interest rates and consumer durables.Solving for the decision rule relating income and interest rates to consumer demand is an intractable task.This paper avoids this problem by examining the first-order conditions necessary for maximization by the representative consumer.Structural parameters of the representative utility function are thus recovered.The estimated model suggests that expenditure on consumer durables is far more sensitive to changes in the interest rate than is expenditure on nondurables and services.