[Colloquium] [CDAC] May 8: Peter Ganong, UChicago/Harris

[Rob Mitchum]

[image: CDAC_Logo smaller.png]

*Peter Ganong*
*Assistant Professor at Harris School of Public Policy*
*University of Chicago*

*Consumer Spending During Unemployment: Positive and Normative Implications*
*Wednesday, May 8, 2019 @ 12:00pm*
*John Crerar Library <https://goo.gl/maps/5h7saQhVerqW8gYA9>, Room 390*
*Lunch Provided*

*Abstract:*
Using de-identified bank account data, we show that spending drops sharply
at the large and predictable decrease in income arising from the exhaustion
of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits. We use the high-frequency response
to a predictable income decline as a new test to distinguish between
alternative consumption models. The sensitivity of spending to income we
document is inconsistent with rational models of liquidity-constrained
households, but is consistent with behavioral models with present biased or
myopic households. Depressed spending after exhaustion also implies that
the consumption-smoothing gains from extending UI benefits are four times
larger than from raising UI benefit levels. You can read the paper here
<https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/voices.uchicago.edu/dist/1/801/files/2018/12/ganong_noel_ui-2mdz1nn.pdf>
.

*Bio:*
Peter is an Assistant Professor at Harris Public Policy. He studies income
volatility and policies to mitigate its consequences. In one recent paper,
he studied how households respond to UI benefit exhaustion. In ongoing
work, he is studying the origins of mortgage default and the best way to
design mortgage modifications to prevent foreclosure. He received a BA in
2009 and a PhD in 2016, both in economics from Harvard. He worked at the
White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2009 to 2010, helped to start
the City of Boston's Citywide Analytics Team from 2014 to 2015, and helped
start immigrantdoctors.org.

*CENTER FOR DATA AND COMPUTING MAY 2019 SPEAKER SERIES*

The Center for Data and Computing (CDAC) <http://cdac.uchicago.edu/> is the
incubator for new multidisciplinary data science research at the University
of Chicago. We catalyze discoveries by fusing fundamental and applied
research with real-world applications.

Join us this May for five illuminating talks from experts at the
intersection of data science and domain research, hear about CDAC funding
and research opportunities, and connect with the growing UChicago Data
Science Community.

All talks will take place 12:00 - 1:00 PM at John Crerar Library, 5730 S.
Ellis Ave., Room 390. Lunch will be served. More information is available
at cdac.uchicago.edu/events

-- 
*Rob Mitchum*

*Associate Director of Communications for Data Science and Computing*
*University of Chicago*
*rmitchum at uchicago.edu <rmitchum at ci.uchicago.edu>*
*773-484-9890*
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.cs.uchicago.edu/pipermail/colloquium/attachments/20190506/b8bb5f3f/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: CDAC_Logo smaller.png
Type: image/png
Size: 168791 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.cs.uchicago.edu/pipermail/colloquium/attachments/20190506/b8bb5f3f/attachment-0001.png>