RATIONAL CONSUMERS*
利用日本代表性面板数据，检验理性预期和自我控制问题，发现符合生命周期假说的理性消费者不会因预期收入变化而调整支出。
The life cycle/permanent income hypothesis (LCPIH) entails two postulates: People have rational expectations and people do not have problems with self‐control. If either or both of these postulates do not apply, we cannot obtain a testable implication for the LCPIH. We use Japanese representative panel data that include responses to self‐reported and retrospective questions in order to elicit behavior such as forward‐looking and self‐control problems. We test the rational expectations hypothesis and the LCPIH implication and find that rational consumers do not change their expenditure in response to expected income changes, which we restrict to fit the two LCPIH postulates.