Conference Agenda

Constrained, “hand-to-mouth,” households with zero liquid wealth are a central building block of modern heterogeneous-agent consumption models. We document empirically that many of these seemingly borrowing-constrained households actually revolve intermediate levels of high-interest credit card debt, meaning that they are not constrained at either the zero-liquid-wealth kink nor at their credit card borrowing limit. This finding presents a challenge: how can heterogeneous-agent models generate empirically realistic marginal propensities to consume without relying on borrowing-constrained households? We show that present bias induces households to revolve modest levels of credit card debt, but their indebted saving behavior still generates elevated MPCs. We then apply this insight to highlight key channels through which credit card borrowing reshapes households’ responses to fiscal and monetary policy.