Liquidity Constraints, Income Variance, and Buffer Stock Savings: Experimental Evidence
通过三期间实验检验缓冲库存模型，发现流动性约束未如预期增加储蓄，但收入方差等预测成立，偏差可能源于债务厌恶、认知异质性或学习。
ABSTRACT We test the buffer stock model of savings behavior using a three‐period intertemporal model. In one treatment, liquidity in the second period is constrained (borrowing not possible), while the unconstrained treatment has no such constraint. The buffer stock model predicts that a second‐period liquidity constraint increases first‐period savings. We also vary the variance of stochastic income (high or low) in a design. While we find no evidence for the predicted liquidity constraint effect, most other predictions hold, for example, income variance effects. Observed departures can be explained by some combination of debt aversion, cognitive heterogeneity, and/or learning.