‘Less Is More’: Consumer Spending and the Size of Economic Stimulus Payments
利用意大利家庭收入和财富调查中的假设性问题，研究不同规模意外临时收入对消费的影响，发现富裕家庭对大额收入边际消费倾向更高，而流动性不足家庭对小额收入更敏感，表明向更多低收入家庭发放小额转移支付比集中大额支付更能刺激总消费。
We study how consumption responds to unexpected, transitory income gains of different sizes using hypothetical questions from the Italian Survey of Household Income and Wealth. Affluent households exhibit higher marginal propensities to consume (MPCs) out of large gains, while liquidity-poor families show higher MPCs out of small gains.The spending patterns of higher earners align with models featuring non-homothetic preferences, whereas borrowing constraints explain the heterogeneity among low-income households. Our findings imply that, for a given fiscal outlay, distributing smaller transfers to a broader group of low-income households stimulates aggregate consumption more effectively than concentrating larger transfers among fewer recipients.