Stochastic Implications of the Life Cycle-Permanent Income Hypothesis: Theory and Evidence

Author(s): Robert E. Hall

Source: Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 86, No. 6 (Dec., 1978), pp. 971-987
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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Stochastic Implications of the Life
Cycle-Permanent Income Hypothesis:
Theory and Evidence

Robert E. Hall
Center
for AdvancedStudyin theBehavioralSciencesandNationalBureauof EconomicResearch

Optimization of the part of consumersis shown to imply that the marginal

utility of consumption evolves according to a random walk with trend.
To a reasonable approximation, consumption itself should evolve in the
same way. In particular, no variable apart from current consumption
should be of any value in predicting future consumption. This implication
is tested with time-series data for the postwar United States. It is con-
firmed for real disposable income, which has no predictive power for
consumption, but rejected for an index of stock prices. The paper con-
cludes that the evidence supports a modified version of the life cycle-
permanent income hypothesis.

As a matter of theory, the life cycle-permanent income hypothesis is

widely accepted as the proper application of the theory of the consumer to
the problem of dividing consumption between the present and the future.
According to the hypothesis, consumers form estimates of their ability to
consume in the long run and then set current consumption to the appro-
priate fraction of that estimate. The estimate may be stated in the form of
wealth, following Modigliani, in which case the fraction is the annuity value
of wealth, or as permanent income, following Friedman, in which case
the fraction should be very close to one. The major problem in empirical
research based on the hypothesis has arisen in fitting the part of the model
that relates current and past observed income to expected future income.
The relationship almost always takes the form of a fixed distributed lag,
though this practice has been very effectively criticized by Robert Lucas
(1976). Further, the estimated distributed lag is usually puzzlingly short.
Equations purporting to embody the life cycle-permanent income principle

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation. I am grateful to Marjorie
Flavin for assistance and to numerous colleagues for helpful suggestions.
[Journal of Political Economy, 1978, vol. 86, no. 6]
?) 1978 by The University of Chicago. 0022-3808/78/8606-0005$01.44

97I
972 JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

are actually little different from the simple Keynesian consumption func-
tion where consumption is determined by contemporaneous income alone.
Much empirical research is seriously weakened by failing to take proper
account of the endogeneity of income when it is the major independent
variable in the consumption function. Classic papers by Haavelmo (1943)
and Friedman and Becker (1957) showed clearly how the practice of
treating income as exogenous in a consumption function severely distorts
the estimated function. Even so, regressionswith consumption as the depen-
dent variable continue to be estimated and interpreted within the life cycle-
permanent income framework.'
Though in principle simultaneous-equationseconometric techniques can
be used to estimate the structural consumption function when its major
right-hand variable is endogenous, these techniques rest on the hypothesis
that certain observed variables, used as instruments, are truly exogenous
yet have an important influence on income. The two requirementsare often
contradictory, and estimation is based on an uneasy compromise where the
exogeneity of the instruments is uncertain. Furthermore, the hypothesis of
exogeneity is untestable.
This paper takes an alternative econometric approach to the study of
the life cycle-permanent income hypothesis by asking exactly what can be
learned from a consumption regressionwhere it is conceded from the outset
that none of the right-hand variables is exogenous. This proceeds from a
theoretical examination of the stochastic implications of the theory. When
consumersmaximize expected future utility, it is shown that the conditional
expectation of future marginal utility is a function of today's level of con-
sumption alone-all other information is irrelevant. In other words, apart
from a trend, marginal utility obeys a random walk. If marginal utility is a
linear function of consumption, then the implied stochastic properties of
consumption are also those of a random walk, again apart from a trend.
Regression techniques can always reveal the conditional expectation of
consumption or marginal utility given past consumption and any other past
variables. The strong stochastic implication of the life cycle-permanent
income hypothesis is that only consumption lagged one period should have a
nonzero coefficient in such a regression. This implication can be tested
rigorously without any assumptions about exogeneity.
Testing of the theoretical implication proceeds as follows: The simplest
implication of the hypothesis is that consumption lagged more than one
period has no predictive power for current consumption. A more stringent
testable implication of the random-walk hypothesis holds that consumption
is unrelated to anyeconomic variable that is observed in earlier periods. In
particular, lagged income should have no explanatory power with respect
to consumption. Previous research on consumption has suggested that

' Examples are Darby 1972 and Blinder 1977.

LIFE CYCLE-PERMANENT INCOME HYPOTHESIS 973

lagged income might be a good predictor of current consumption, but this

hypothesis is inconsistent with the intelligent, forward-lookingbehavior of
consumers that forms the basis of the permanent-income theory. If the
previous value of consumption incorporated all information about the well-
being of consumers at that time, then lagged values of actual income should
have no additional explanatory value once lagged consumption is included.
The data support this view lagged income has a slightly negative co-
efficient in an equation with consumption as the dependent variable and
lagged consumption as an independent variable. Of course, contempo-
raneous income has high explanatory value, but this does not contradict the
principal stochastic implication of the life cycle-permanent income hy-
pothesis.
As a final test of the random-walk hypothesis, the predictive power of
lagged values of corporate stock prices is tested. Changes in stock prices
lagged by a single quarter are found to have a measurable value in predict-
ing changes in consumption, which in a formal sense refutes the simple
random-walk hypothesis. However, the finding is consistent with a modifi-
cation of the hypothesis that recognizes a brief lag between changes in
permanent income and the corresponding changes in consumption. The
discovery that consumption moves in a way similar to stock prices actually
supports this modification of the random-walk hypothesis since stock prices
are well known to obey a random walk themselves.
The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of the pure
life cycle-permanent income hypothesis for macroeconomic forecasting
and policy analysis. If every deviation of consumption from its trend is
unexpected and permanent, then the best forecast of future consumption is
just today's level adjusted for trend. Forecasts of future changes in income
are irrelevant, since the information used in preparing them is already
incorporated in today's consumption. In a forecasting model, consumption
should be treated as an exogenous variable. For policy analysis, the pure
life cycle-permanent income hypothesis supports the modern view that
only unexpected changes in policy affect consumption-everything known
about future changes in policy is already incorporated in present consump-
tion. Further, unexpected changes in policy affect consumption only to the
extent that they affect permanent income, and then their effects are expected
to be permanent. Policies that have a transitory effect on income are in-
capable of having a transitory effect on consumption. However, none of the
findings of the paper implies that policies affecting income have no effect on
consumption. For example, a permanent tax reduction generates an imme-
diate increase in permanent income and thus an immediate increase in
consumption. But the evidence that policies act only through permanent
income certainly complicates the problem of formulating countercyclical
policies that act through consumption.
974 JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

I. Theory
Consider the conventional model of life-cycle consumption under uncer-
tainty: maximize Et I` (1 + 3) -u(ct+,) subject to ET_`7 (1 + r) -(ct+, -
Wt+r) = At. The notation used throughout the paper is:
Et = mathematical expectation conditional on all information available
in t;
3 = rate of subjective time preference;
r = real rate of interest (r _ 3), assumed constant over time;
T = length of economic life;
u() = one-period utility function, strictly concave;
ct= consumption;
t= earnings;
At= assets apart from human capital.
Earnings, wt. are stochastic and are the only source of uncertainty. In
each period, t, the consumer chooses consumption, ct, to maximize expected
lifetime utility in the light of all information available then. The consumer
knows the value of wt when choosing ct. No specific assumptions are made
about the stochastic propertiesof wt except that the conditional expectation
of future earnings given today's information, Et wt+ , exists. In particular,
successive we'sare not assumed to be independent, nor is wt required to be
stationary in any sense.2
The principal theoretical result, proved in the Appendix, is the following:
Theorem. Suppose the consumer maximizes expected utility as stated
above. Then Et u'(ct+ 1) = [(1 + 3) /(1 + r)]u'(ct).
The implications of this result are presented in a series of corollaries.
Corollary1. No information available in period t apart from the level of
consumption, ct. helps predict future consumption, ct+1, in the sense of
affecting the expected value of marginal utility. In particular, income or
wealth in periods t or earlier are irrelevant, once ct is known.
Corollary2.-Marginal utility obeys the regression relation, u'(ct+ ) =
yu'(ct) + et+,, where y = (1 + 6)/(1 + r) and et+1 is a true regression
disturbance; that is, Et Et+1 = ?.
Corollary3. If the utility function is quadratic, u(ct) = -2(-c
(where c is the bliss level of consumption), then consumption obeys the
exact regression, ct+1 = P3o + yct - et+ , with fl = c(r - 3)/(1 + r).
Again, no variable observed in period t or earlier will have a nonzero
coefficient if added to this regression.
Corollary4.-If the utility function has the constant elasticity of substitu-
tion form, u(ct) = cta-1)1', then the following statistical model describes
the evolution of consumption: cT+'11" - 1y /a + t+i1

2 An illuminating analysis of the behavior of consumption when income is stationary

appears in Yaari (1976). Further aspects are discussed by Bewley (1976).
LIFE CYCLE-PERMANENT INCOME HYPOTHESIS 975
Corollary 5. Suppose that the change in marginal utility from one
period to the next is small, both because the interest rate is close to the rate
of time preference and because the stochastic change is small. Then
consumption itself obeys a random walk, apart from trend.3 Specifically,
ct+1 = Atct+ et+1/u"(ct)+ higher-order terms where A, is [(1 + 3)/
(1 + r)] raised to the power of the reciprocal of the elasticity of marginal
utility
= 1 + 3 )UZ(ct)ICtU",(Ct)
1 +r

The rate of growth, i, exceeds one because u"is negative. It may change
over time if the elasticity of marginal utility depends on the level of con-
sumption. However, it seems likely that constancy of A, will be a good
approximation, at least over a decade or two. Further, the factor 1/u"(C,)
in the disturbance is of little concern in regressionwork-it might introduce
a mild heteroscedasticity, but it would not bias the results of ordinary least
squares. From this point on, Et will be redefined to incorporate I/u"(ce)
where appropriate.
This line of reasoning reaches the conclusion that the simple relationship
Ct = ict- 1 + Et where 1, is unpredictable at time t - 1, is a close approxi-
mation to the stochastic behavior of consumption under the life cycle-
permanent income hypothesis. The disturbance, E, summarizes the impact
of all new information that becomes available in period t about the con-
sumer's lifetime well-being. Its relation to other economic variables can be
seen in the following way. First, assets, A,, evolve according to A, =
(1 + r)(At,1 - c1 + wt_1). Second, let Ht be human capital,
defined as current earnings plus the expected present value of future
earnings: HL = I[`o (1 + r)-T Et wt+ where Et wt = wt. Then Ht evolves
according to Ht = (1 + r)(II_1 -Hwt 1) + I' -7 (1 + r)-'(Et wt~ -
Etw 1 Wt+T). Let qt be the second term, that is, the present value of the set
of changes in expectations of future earnings that occur between t - 1 and
t. Then by construction, Et_ 1 qt = 0. Still, the first term in the expression
for Ht may introduce a complicated intertemporal dependence into its
stochastic behavior; only under very special circumstances will it be a ran-
dom walk. The implied stochastic equation for total wealth is At + Ht =
(1 + r)(At-1 + H,1 - ct-1) + rtt The evolution of total wealth then
depends on the relationship between the new information about wealth, It,
and the induced change in consumption as measured by Et. Under certainty
equivalence, justified either by quadratic utility or by the small size of Et,
the relationship is simple: Et = [1 + i/l(l + r) + *.. + T t/l(l + r)T-t]17t
= Xtqt This is the modified annuity value of the increment in wealth. The

3Granger and Newbold (1976) present much stronger results for a similar problem but
assume a normal distribution for the disturbance.
976 JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

modification takes account of the consumer's plans to make consumption

grow at proportional rate A over the rest of his life. Then the stochastic
equationfortotalwealthisA, + H, = (1 + r)(1 - at1)(A, 1 + H,.1)
+ C, which is a random walk with trend.
Consumers, then, process all available information each period about
current and future earnings. They convert data on earnings,which may have
large, predictable movements over time, into human capital, which evolves
according to a combination of a highly predictable element associated with
the realization of current earnings and an unpredictable element associated
with changing expectations about future earnings. Taking account as well of
financial assets accumulated from past earnings, consumers determine an
appropriate current level of consumption. As shown at the beginning of this
section, this implies that marginal utility evolves as a random walk with
trend. As a result of consumers' optimization, wealth also evolves as a
random walk with trend. Although it is tempting to summarize the theory by
saying that consumption is proportional to wealth, wealth is a random
walk, and so consumption is a random walk, this is not accurate. Rather,
the underlying behavior of consumers makes both consumption and wealth
evolve as random walks.
All of the theoretical results presented in this section rest on the assump-
tion that consumers face a known, constant, real interest rate. If the real
interest rate varies over time in a way that is known for certain in advance,
the results would remain true with minor amendments-mainly, A, would
vary over time on this account. The importance of known variations in
interest rates depends on the elasticity of substitution between the present
and future. If that elasticity is low, the influence would be unimportant.
On the other hand, if the real interest rate applicable between periods t
and t + 1 is uncertain at the time the consumption decision in period t
is made, then the theoretical results no longer apply. However, there seems
no strong reason for this to bias the results of the statistical tests in one
direction or another.

II. Tests to Distinguish the Life Cycle-Permanent Income Theory

from Alternative Theories
The tests of the stochastic implications of the life cycle-permanent income
hypothesis carried out in this paper all have the form of estimating a condi-
tional expectation, E(c I Ct_ 1, xt- 1i), where xt- 1 is a vector of data known
in period t - 1, and then testing the hypothesis that the conditional expecta-
tion is actually not a function of x, 1- 4 In all cases, the conditional expecta-

4 The nature of the hypothesis being tested and the statistical tests themselves are essentially
the same as in the large body of research on efficient capital markets (see Fama 1970). Sims
(1978) treats the statistical problem of the asymptotic distribution of the regression coefficients
of x,- 1 in this kind of regression, with the conclusion that the standard formulas are correct.
LIFE CYCLE-PERMANENT INCOME HYPOTHESIS 977
tion is made linear in xt- 1, so the tests are the usual F-tests for the exclusion
of a group of variables from a regression. Again, regression is the appro-
priate statistical technique for estimating the conditional expectation, and
no claim is made that the true structuralrelation between consumption and
its determinants is revealed by this approach.
What departures from the life cycle-permanent income hypothesis will
this kind of test detect? There are two principal lines of thought about
consumption that contradict the hypothesis. One holds that consumers are
unable to smooth consumptionover transitoryfluctuationsin income because
of liquidity constraints and other practical considerations. Consumption is
therefore too sensitive to current income to conform to the life cycle-per-
manent income principle. The second holds that a reasonable measure of
permanent income is a distributed lag of past actual income, so the consump-
tion function should relate actual consumption to such a distributed lag.
A general consumption function embodying both ideas might let consump-
tion respond with a fairly large coefficient to contemporaneous income and
then have a distributed lag over past income. Such consumption functions
are in widespread use and fit the data extremely well. But their estimation
involves the very substantial issue that income and consumption arejointly
determined. Estimation by least squares provides no evidence whether the
observed behavior is consistent with the life cycle-permanent income
hypothesis or not. Simultaneous estimation could provide evidence, but it
would reston crucial assumptionsof exogeneity. Regressionsof consumption
on lagged consumption and lagged income can provide evidence without
assumptions of exogeneity, as this section will show.
Consider firstthe issueof excessive sensitivityof consumption to transitory
fluctuations in income, which has been emphasized by Tobin and Dolde
(1971) and Mishkin (1976). The simplest alternative hypothesis supposes
that a fractionof the population simply consumesall of its disposable income,
instead of obeying the life cycle-permanent income consumption function.
Suppose this fraction earns a proportion ji of total income, and let c' = puyt
be their consumption. The other part of consumption, say ct, follows the
rule set out earlier: C"= W'_ 1 + 6t. The conditional expectation of total
consumption, ct. given its own lagged value, and, say, two lagged values of
income, is E(ct ICt- 1,Yt- l,Yt- 2) = E(ct I Ct- 1,Yt- 1,Yt- 2 ) + E(c' I c, 1,
Yt-1,Yt-2) = HE(yt It- IYt1,Yt- 2) + A(ct1 - /PYt-l). Suppose that
disposable income obeys a univariate autoregressiveprocessof second order,
so E(yt Ct-1,Yt-1,Yt-2) = PlYt-l + P2Yt-2. Then E(ct Ict,1,yt-l,
Yt- 2) = Act- 1 + !(P1 -i) Yt-I + PP2Yt-2. The life cycle-permanent
income hypothesis will be rejected unless P -i= and P2 = 0, that is,
unless disposable income and consumption obey exactly the same stochastic
process. If they do, permanent income and observed income are the same
thing, and the liquidity-constrained fraction of the population is obeying
the hypothesis anyway, so the hypothesis is confirmed. The proposed test
978 JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

involving regressing c, on c, 1, yt- 1, and Yt 2 will reject the life cycle-

permanent income hypothesis in favor of the simple liquidity-constrained
model whenever the latter is materially different from the former.
The distributed lag approximation to permanent income was first sug-
gested by Friedman (1957, 1963) and has figured prominently in consump-
tion functions ever since. Distributed lags are not necessarily incompatible
with the life cycle-permanent income hypothesis if income obeys a stable
stochastic process, there should be a structuralrelation between the innova-
tion in income and consumption (Flavin 1977).5 Still, the theory of the
consumer presented earlier rules out any extra predictive value of a dis-
tributed lag of income (excluding contemporaneous income) in a regression
that contains lagged consumption. If consumers use a nonoptimal distri-
buted lag in forming their estimates of permanent income, then this central
implication of the life cycle-permanent income hypothesis is false. This
proposition is easiest to establish for the simple Koyck or geometric distri-
buted lag, ct = oX /i fl5t-i 3 or t = flc, + ocy Suppose, as before,
thaty, obeys a second-order autoregressiveprocess, E(y, I Ct- 1,Yt- 1,Yt- 2)
= PlYt-1 + P2Yt-2. Then the conditional expectation is E(ct I ct-1,
Yt- 1,Yt- 2) = f3Ct- 1 + pY t- 1 + (P2Yt- 2. As long as income is serially
correlated (P, # 0 or P2 = 0), this conditional expectation will not
depend solely on c, 1 and the pure life cycle-permanent income hypothesis
will be refuted. Discussion of the peculiarities of the case of uncorrelated
income seems unnecessary since income is in fact highly serially correlated.
With this slight qualification, the proposedtest procedurewill always detect a
Koyck lag if it is present and thus refute the life cycle-permanent income
hypothesis.
It is possible to show that the test also applies to the general distributed
lag model used by Modigliani (197 1) and others. If the lag in the underlying
structural consumption function is nonoptimal, lagged income will have
additional predictive power for current consumption beyond that of lagged
consumption, so the life cycle-permanent income hypothesiswill be rejected.
Data generated by consumers who use an optimal distributed lag of current
and past income in making consumption decisions will not cause rejection.
This shows the crucial distinction between structural models which include
contemporaneous income and the test regressionsof this paper where the
principle of the tests involves the inclusion of lagged variables alone.
This section has shown that simple tests of the predictive power of vari-
ables other than lagged consumption can detect departures from the pure
life cycle-permanent income hypothesis in the two directions that have been
widely suggested in previous research on consumption. Both excessive
sensitivity to current income because of liquidity constraints and non-

5 Lucas (1976) argues convincingly that the stochastic process for income will shift if
policy rules change.
LIFE CYCLE-PERMANENT INCOME HYPOTHESIS 979

TABLE 1
REGRESSION RESULTS FOR THE BASIC MODEL.. 1948-77
-Ila= ycl/a + g

D-W
Equation a Constant y SE R2 Statistic

1.0 ....... .2 ... .983 .000735 .9964 2.06

(.003)
1.2 ....... 1.0 ... .996 .00271 .9985 1.83
(.001)
1.3 ....... - 1.0 -.014 1.011 .0146 .9988 1.70
(.003)

NoTE.-The numbers in parentheses in these and subsequent regressionsare standard errors.

optimal distributed lag behavior will give additional predictive power to

lagged income beyond that of lagged consumption in a regressionfor current
consumption. The discussion of this section focused on the possible role of
lagged income because that role is so closely related to alternative theoriesof
consumption. Valid tests can be performedwith any variable that is known
in period t - 1 or earlier. The additional tests presented in the next section
use extra lagged values of consumption and lagged values of common stock
prices. Both variables have plausible justifications, but are less closely
related to competing theories of consumption.

III. The Data and Results for the Basic Model

The most careful research on consumption has distinguished between the
investment and consumption activities of consumers by removing invest-
ment in consumer durables and adding the imputed service flowof the stock
of durables to consumption. For the purposes of this paper, however, it is
more satisfactory simply to examine consumption of nondurables and
services. All of the theoretical foundations of the aggregate consumption
function apply to individual categories of consumption as well. Dropping
durables altogether avoids the suspicion that the findings are an artifact of
the procedure for imputing a service flow to the stock of durables. The data
on consumption used throughout the study, then, can be defined exactly as
consumption of nondurables and services in 1972 dollars from the U.S.
National Income and Product Accounts divided by the population. All
data are quarterly.
Table 1 presents the resultsof fitting the basic regressionrelation between
current and lagged marginal utility predicted by the pure life cycle-
permanent income theory. Equations 1.1 and 1.2 are for the constant-
elasticity utility function, with a = 0.2 and 1.0, respectively. Equation 1.3
is for the quadratic utility function exactly, or for any utility function
approximately, and is simply a regressionof consumption on its own lagged
value and a constant. All three equations show that the predictive value of
980 JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

lagged marginal utility for current marginal utility is extremely high; that is,
the typical information that becomes available in each quarter, as measured
by et, has only a small impact on consumption or marginal utility. Of course,
this is no more than a theoretical interpretation of the well-known fact that
consumption is highly serially correlated. The close fit of the regressionsin
table 1 is not itself confirmation of the life cycle-permanent income hy-
pothesis, since the hypothesis makes no prediction about the variability of
permanent income and the resultant variance ofsE. The theory is compatible
with any amount of unexplained variation in the regression.
There is no usable statistical criterion for choice among the three equa-
tions in table 1. The transformationof the dependent variable rules out the
simple principle of least squares. Under the assumption of a normal distri-
bution for et, there is a likelihood function with an extra term, theJacobian
determinant, to take account of the transformation. However, for this
sample, it proved to be an increasing function of a for all values, so no
maximum-likelihood estimator is available. This seems to reflect the opera-
tion of corollary 5 the yet'sare small enough that any specification of
marginal utility is essentially proportional to consumption itself, and the
effective content of the life cycle-permanent income theory is to make con-
sumption itself evolve as a random walk with trend. From this point on,
the paper will discussonly equation 1.3 and its extensions to other variables.
The principal stochastic implication of the life cycle-permanent income
hypothesis is that no other variables observed in quarter t - 1 or earlier
can help predict the residuals from the regressionsin table 1. Before formal
statistical tests are used, it is useful to study the residuals themselves. The
pattern of the residuals is extremely similar in the three regressions,but the
residuals themselves are easiest to interpret for equation 3, where they have
the units of consumption per capita in 1972 dollars. These residuals appear
in table 2.
The standard error of the residuals in 14.6, so roughly six of the observa-
tions should exceed 29.2 in magnitude. There are in fact six. Three are
drops in consumption, and of these, one coincides with the standard dating
of recessions: 1974:4. Five milder recessions contribute drops of less than
two standard deviations: 1949:3, 1953:4, 1958:1, 1960:3, and 1970:4.
The other major decline in consumption is associated with the Korean
War, in 1950:4. Most of the drops in consumption occurred quickly, in one
or two quarters.The only important exception was in the period from 1973:4
to 1975: 1, when six straight quarters of consecutive decline took place. On
the expansionary side, there is little consistent evidence of any systematic
tendency for consumption to recover in a regular pattern after a setback.
The largest single increase occurred in 1965:4. This, together with three
successive increases in 1964, accounts for all of the increase in consumption
relative to trend associated with the prolonged boom of the mid- and late
sixties.
LIFE CYCLE-PERMANENT INCOME HYPOTHESIS 98 I

TABLE 2
RESIDUALS FROM REGRESSION OF CONSUMPTION ON LAGGED CONSUMPTION, 1948-77 ($)

1948: 1956: 1964: 1972:

1.... .5 1.... 2.8 1.... 17.8 1.... 20.0
2.... 8.0 2.. .. -10.1 2.... 20.0 2... 32.7
3.... - 15.5 3.... -6.1 3.... 14.6 3.... 8.4
4.... 3.5 4.... 1.2 4.... -4.4 4.... 21.1
1949: 1957: 1965: 1973:
1.... -8.6 1.... - 10.8 1.... 5.8 1 .... 8.0
2.... -8.5 2.. .. -6.1 2.... 5.2 2.... - 15.6
3.... - 27.2 3.... 2.4 3.... 10.2 3 .... 3.0
4.... -.1 4.... - 13.6 4.... 38.7 4.... -32.8
1950: 1958: 1966: 1974:
1.... 5.6 1.... -29.1 1.... - 1.3 1.... -27.3
2.... 23.8 2 .... 8.3 2.... 3.7 2-... - 23.4
3.... 15.5 3 .... 14.3 3.... - 1.9 3.... - 16.6
4.... - 31.0 4.... - 1.9 4.... - 12.4 4.... - 42.8
1951: 1959: 1967: 1975:
1 .... 16.0 1.... 15.1 1.... 10.2 1.... -5.8
2.... - 24.8 2.... 3.8 2.... 2.0 2 .... 25.6
3 .... 9.0 3.... -2.7 3.... -2.8 3.... -21.3
4.. . - 6.1 4.. 4.. 1.1 4.... - 7.5 4.... .9
1952: 1960: 1968: 1976:
1.... - 15.1 1.... -5.6 1.... 15.6 1.... 24.4
2.... 18.0 2.... 8.8 2.... 7.9 2.... 8.3
3.... 10.0 3.... - 24.3 3.... 22.2 3.... 2.3
4.... 8.6 4.... - 10.1 4.... -8.1 4.... 30.4
1953: 1961: 1969: 1977:
1.... - 1.6 1 .... 1.8 1.... .8 1.. -1.8
2.... - 1.0 2.... 10.1 2.... -5.3
3.... -22.1 3.... - 16.9 3.... -2.4
4.... - 27.0 4.... 15.8 4.... .3
1954: 1962: 1970:
1.... -.1 1.... -1.7 1,... 4.0
2.... -2.4 2 .... 3.4 2.... - 12.3
3.. . 11.9 3.... - .8 3. . . .-3
4.... 7.4 4.... .6 4.... -21.5
1955: 1963: 1971:
1.... 6.1 1.... -8.4 1.... 1.5
2.... 7.0 2.... - 1.3 2.... - 2.4
3.... -.8 3 .... 11.7 3.... - 14.6
4.... 22.3 4.... -6.3 4.... -6.6

The data contain no obvious refutation of the unpredictability of the

residuals from the basic model, but, just as a study of stock prices will never
convince the "chartist" that it is futile to try to predict their future, the con-
firmed believer in regular fluctuations in consumption will not be swayed
by the data alone. More powerful methods for summarizing the data are
required.

IV. Can Consumption Be Predicted from Its Own Past Values?

The simplest testable implication of the pure life cycle-permanent income
hypothesis is that only the first lagged value of consumption helps predict
current consumption. This implication would be refuted if consumption
had a definite cyclical pattern described by a difference equation of second
982 JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

or higher order.6 Intelligent consumers ought to be able to offset any such

cyclical pattern and restore the noncyclical optimal behavior of consump-
tion predicted by the hypothesis. The following regressiontests this implica-
tion by adding additional lagged values of consumption to equation 1.3:
Ct= 8.2 + 1*130ct- - 0.040ct- 2 + 0.030c 3 - 0.lIl3c, 4;
(8.3) (0.092) (0.142) (0.142) (0.093)
R2= .9988; s = 14.5; D-W = 1.96.
The contribution of the extra lagged values is to increase the accuracy of
the forecast of current consumption by about 10 cents per person per year.
The F-statistic for the hypothesis that the coefficients of ct-2, Ct2 3, and
ct 4 are all zero is 1.7, well under the critical point of the F-distribution of
2.7 at the 5 percent level. Only very weak evidence against the pure life
cycle-permanent income hypothesis appears in this regression. In particu-
lar, there are no definite signs that consumption obeys a second-order
difference equation capable of generating stochastic cycles. In this respect,
consumption differs sharply from other aggregate economic measures,
which do typically obey second-order autoregressions.

V. Can Consumption Be Predicted from Disposable Income?

If lagged income has substantial predictive power beyond that of lagged
consumption, then the life cycle-permanent income hypothesis is refuted.
As discussed in Section II, this evidence would support the alternative
views that consumers are excessively sensitive to current income, or, more
generally, that they use an ad hoc, nonoptimal distributed lag of past income
in making consumption decisions.
Table 3 presents a variety of regressionstesting the predictive power of
real disposable income per capita, measured as current dollar disposable
income from the national accounts divided by the implicit deflator for
consumption of nondurables and services and divided by population.
Equation 3.1 shows that a single lagged level of disposable income has
essentially no predictive value at all. The coefficient of y, is slightly
negative, but this is easily explained by sampling variation alone. The
F-statistic for the exclusion of all but the constant and ct- 1 is 0. 1, far below
the critical Fof 3.9. Equation 3.2 tries a year-long distributed lag estimated
without constraint. The first lagged value of disposable income has a slight
positive coefficient, but this is more than outweighed by the three negative
coefficients for the longer lags. The long-run "marginal propensity to
consume," measured by the sum of the coefficients, is actually negative,
though again this could easily result from sampling variation. The F-
statistic for the joint predictive value of all four lagged income variables is
2.0, somewhat less than the critical value of 2.4 at the 5 percent level. Note
6
Fama (1970) calls the similar test for asset prices a "weak form" test.
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m. C'
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984 JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

that the pure life cycle-permanent income hypothesis would be rejected if

the size of the test were 10 percent or higher.
Equation 3.3 fits a 12-quarter Almon lag to see if a long distributed lag
can compete with lagged consumption as a predictor for current consump-
tion. Again, the sum of the lag coefficients is slightly negative, now almost
significantly so. The F-statistic for the hypothesis of no contribution from
the complete distributed lag on income is again close to the critical value.
The sample evidence of the relation between consumption and lagged
income seems to say the following: There is a statistically marginal and
numerically small relation between consumption and very recent levels of
disposable income. The sum of the lag coefficients is slightly negative.
Further, there is no evidence at all supportingthe view that a long distributed
lag covering several years helps to predict consumption. This evidence casts
just a little doubt on the life cycle-permanent income hypothesis in its purest
form but is not at all destructive to a somewhat more flexible interpretation
of the hypothesis, to be discussed shortly.

VI. Wealth and Consumption

Of the many alternative variables that might be included on the right-hand
side of a regressionto test the pure life cycle-permanent income hypothesis,
some measure of wealth is one of the leading candidates. Theory and pre-
vailing practice agree that contemporaneous wealth has a strong influence
on consumption, so lagged wealth is a logical variable to test. Again, the
hypothesis implies that wealth measured in earlier quarters should have no
predictive value with respect to this quarter's consumption. All information
contained in lagged wealth should be summarized in lagged consumption.
Reliable quarterly data on property values are not available for most
categories of property. For one major category, however, essentially perfect
data are available at any frequency, namely, the market value of corporate
stock. Tests of the random-walk hypothesis do not require a comprehensive
wealth variable, so a test based on stock prices is appropriate, even though
the resulting equation does not describe the structural relation between
wealth and consumption. The tests reported here are based on Standard and
Poor's comprehensive index of the prices of stocks deflated by the implicit
deflator for nondurables and services and divided by population. This vari-
able will be called s. It makes a statistically unambiguous contribution to
prediction of current consumption:
t = -22 + 1.012ct-i + 0.223st1 - 0.258st2 + 0.167s,-3- 0.120st-4
(8) (0.004) (0.051) (0.083) (0.083) (0.051)
R2 = .9990; SE = 14.4; D-W = 2.05.
The F-statistic for the hypothesis that the coefficients of the lagged stock
prices are all zero is 6.5, well above the critical value of 2.4 at the 5 percent
LIFE CYCLE-PERMANENT INCOME HYPOTHESIS 985
level. Further, each coefficient considered separately is clearly different
from zero according to the usual t-test. However, the improvement in the
predictive power of the regression, while statistically significant, is not
numerically large. The standard error of the regression is about 20 cents
per person per year smaller in this equation compared with the basic model
of equation 1.3 ($14.40 against $14.60). Most of the predictive value of the
stock price comes from the changein the price in the immediately preceding
quarter. A smaller contribution is made by the change in the price 3
quarters earlier. Use of the Almon lag technique for both levels and differ-
ences in the stock price failed to turn up any evidence of a longer distributed
lag.

VII. Implications of the Empirical Evidence

The pure life cycle-permanent income hypothesis that ct cannot be pre-
dicted by any variable dated t - 1 or earlier other than ct- 1 is rejected
by the data. The stock market is valuable in predicting consumption 1
quarter in the future. Most of the predictive power comes from As, 1. But
the data seem entirely compatible with a modification of the hypothesis
that leaves its central content unchanged. Suppose that consumption does
depend on permanent income, and that marginal utility indeed does evolve
as a random walk with trend, but that some part of consumption takes time
to adjust to a change in permanent income. Then any variable that is
correlated with permanent income in t - 1 will help in predicting the
change in consumption in period t, since part of that change is the lagged
response to the previous change in permanent income. Both the finding that
consumption is only weakly associated with its own past values and that
immediate past values of changes in stock prices have a modest predictive
value are compatible with this modification of the life cycle-permanent
income hypothesis.
Whatever problems remain in the consumption function, there seems
little reason to doubt the life cycle-permanent income hypothesis. Within
a framework in which permanent income is treated as an unobserved
variable the data seem fully compatible with the hypothesis, provided a
short lag between permanent income and consumption is recognized. Of
course, acceptance of the hypothesis does not yield a complete consumption
function, since no equation for permanent income has been developed. The
evidence againstthe ad hoc distributed-lagmodel relating permanentincome
to actual income seems fairly strong. The task of further research is to
create a more satisfactorymodel for permanent income, one that recognizes
that consumers appraise their economic well-being in an intelligent way
that involves looking into the future.
It is important not to treat any of the equations of this paper as structural
relations between consumption and the variables that are used to predict it.
986 JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY

For example, table 3 should not be read as implying that income has a
negative effect on consumption. The effect of a particular change in income
depends on the change in permanent income it induces, and this can range
anywhere from no effect to a dollar-for-dollareffect, depending on the way
that consumers evaluate the change. In any case, the regressionsunderstate
the true structural relation between the change in income and the change in
consumption because they omit the contemporaneous part of the relation.

VIII. Implications for Forecasting and Policy Analysis

Under the pure life cycle-permanent income hypothesis, a forecast of
future consumption obtained by extrapolating today's level by the historical
trend is impossible to improve. The results of this paper have the strong
implication that beyond the next few quarters consumption should be
treated as an exogenous variable. There is no point in forecasting future
income and then relating it to income, since any information available
today about future income is already incorporated in today's permanent
income. Forecasts of consumption next quarter can be improved slightly
with current stock prices, but no further improvement can be achieved in
this way in later quarters.
With respect to the analysis of stabilization policy, the findings of this
paper go no furtherthan supporting the view that policy affectsconsumption
only as much as it affects permanent income. In the analysis of policies that
are known to leave permanent income unchanged, consumption may be
treated as exogenous. Further, only new information about taxes and other
policy instruments can affect permanent income. Beyond these general
propositions, the policy analyst must answer the difficult question of the
effect of a given policy on permanent income in order to predict its effect
on consumption. Regression of consumption on current and past values of
income are of no value whatsoever in answering this question.

Appendix
1. Theorem
If a consumer maximizes Et '= o (1 + 3) -tu(c,), subject to E' o (1 + r) -t(ct - i)
= A0, sequentially determining c, at each t, then Etu'(c,+1) = [(1 + 6)/(1 + r)]
x u' (ct).
Proof.-At time t, the consumer chooses ct so as to maximize (1 + 6) -tu(cq) +
Et -r'=,+1 (1 + 3)-tu(c,) subject to I' , (1 + r)(T-t)(c, - w,) = A,. The optimal
sequential strategy has the form c, = g, (wt,. w .-. , ., wO, AO). Consider a variation
from this strategy: ct = gtw, . * **) + x: t +1 = gt + I (w + 1, wt,. * (1 + r)x.
Note that the new consumption strategy also satisfies the budget constraint. Now
consider maxx{(1 + 6)-tu(g, + x) + Et [(1 + 6)-t-u(g,,, - (1 + r)x) +
,?=t+2 (1 + c) yu(gr)]}-
The first-order condition is (1 + 6) -tu'(gt + x) - Et (1 + 6>)t'(l + r)
U'(g, + I - ( 1 + r)x) = 0 as asserted.
LIFE CYCLE-PERMANENT INCOME HYPOTHESIS 987
2. Proof of Corollary 5
Recall that u'(ct+,) = [(1 + 6)/(1 + r)]u'(ct) + et+l and At = [(1 + 3)/
(1 + r) ]u'(ct)I(ctu"(ct)].Expand the implicit equation for ct+ 1 in a Taylor series at the
point At = 1 (r = 6) and et + 1 = :ct + 1 = ct + (t - 1) (act + 1/aAt) + et + 1(act + I /
08t + 1) + higher-order terms. At the point A, = 1 and et + 1 = 0, ct+ 1 equals ct, and
it is not hard to show that act+1/IAt = ct and act+1it+1 = l/u"(c,). Thus c,+1 =
c, + (i - l) c + et + 1/u"(ct) = tct+ + et+ 1l/u"(ct), as asserted.

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