Why are Households that Report the Lowest Incomes So Well-off?
研究发现英国收入最低的家庭消费远高于收入稍低的家庭，这种反常现象持续三十年，主要原因是收入低报而非消费高报，消费平滑无法完全解释。
We document that households in the UK with extremely low measured income tend to spend much more than those with merely moderately low income. This phenomenon is evident throughout three decades worth of microdata and across different employment states, levels of education and marital statuses. Of the likely explanations, we provide several arguments that discount over‐reporting of expenditure and argue that under‐reporting of income plays the major role. In particular, by using a dynamic model of consumption and saving, and paying special attention to poverty dynamics, we show that consumption smoothing cannot explain all the apparent dissaving.