Due Thursday

June 14, 2022

Scholarly and popular sources have various differences and similarities. The articles “consumer

spending during unemployment: positive and normative implications” and “consumer spending

during unemployment: evidence from US bank account data” have been written by the same

authors. However, the articles differ in the way they have been introduced. The academic source

has an abstract while the popular source has a summary at the beginning. There is a timeliness to

the introduction section that indicates the question that the data can answer in the academic and

popular source.

The authors use jargon in the academic source. The academic source uses language that would be

familiar to a specific audience. Examples of jargon in the academic source include liquidity-

constrained households, job-finding hazards spikes, endogenous consumption, labor market

biographies and cumulative sum. The academic source includes equations to calculate the

outcome of interest. The authors perform heterogeneity analysis to determine whether income

changes drive changes in spending. There are many complex terms and abbreviations that have

been used in the academic source, making it hard for everyone to understand the article.

The popular source uses simple language. The authors of the popular source do not include

complex equations. They use words that can easily be understood by members of the general

public. By reading the article, most people can easily understand that the level of spending

decreases when people lose their jobs. Unemployment insurance cushions those who lose their

jobs. The authors explain that unemployment insurance benefits can help to stabilize
consumption when there is unemployment. The authors avoid use of jargon that can make it

difficult for any reader to understand the article.

Both articles explain how data was obtained and analyzed. In the popular source, the authors

explain that they worked with JPMorgan Chase Institute to construct a panel dataset that tracked

consumption and income among those who received unemployment insurance. The methods are

described in both the academic and popular source. The authors explain that they measured 22

types of spending. They also compared spending in various states where benefits had lasted for

six months.

The academic source is; however, more detailed about how data was obtained and analyzed. The

authors explain that they used de-identified bank records that were drawn from the universe of

holds with a Chase bank account. They constructed high-frequency estimates of the spendings.

The analysis sample was drawn from 27 million households that had a checking account in the

JPMCI data. The authors explain about the sample restrictions imposed by the analysis sample.

The variables are clearly explained in the academic source. They include liabilities, income,

assets and spending. The methodology provided in the academic source is more detailed than the

one provided in the popular source. In the academic source, the authors describe various models

such as the behavioral model and the standard model. These models have not been explained in

the popular source. The author only mentions that the results are consistent with the behavioral

model.

In both the popular and the academic source, the authors use pronouns such as our and we.

However, the pronouns rarely been used in both articles. An example of numerical data in the

popular source is that drug store purchases dropped by 15 percent while grocery spending

dropped by 16 percent. The author conveys the purpose of the data clearly. The authors explain
the purpose of the data better in the academic source. They show that there were drops in

spending during unemployment.

The data has been presented more clearly in the academic source than in the popular source. The

academic source has detailed data tables. The tables have descriptive titles, notes section, legends

and labels. The popular source contains the same charts in the academic source. However, the

charts do not have a note section for explanation like in the academic source.

REFERENCES

Ganong, P., & Noel, P. (2019). Consumer spending during unemployment: Positive and

normative implications. American economic review, 109(7), 2383-2424.