An Alternative Nonlinear Perspective on the Consumption, Income and Wealth Relationship

We provide new evidence on the relationship between consumption expenditure and key drivers namely, income and wealth. Using a testing procedure advocated by Bierens applied to US data, we find evidence that all series are in fact stationary around a nonlinear deterministic trend and are co-trended insofar as they share a common nonlinear deterministic trend. This can be seen in the context of cointegration-based studies that have often found against the existence of a long-run relationship. We also contribute to the ‘great ratios' debate concerning the time series properties of the average propensity to consume.