Abstract:
We utilize a novel dataset that merges household administrative income and socio-demographic information from tax records with scanner data on CPG consumption. Our analysis reveals significant variation in household per-capita expenditures. However, we find only a modest economic relationship between CPG spending and income, even amidst substantial within-household income fluctuations during the Dutch "double-dip recession" from 2011 to 2018. This relationship remains small for households with low income and low liquidity and holds across both food and non-food expenditures.