Wealth effects in emerging market economies

Abstract

We build a panel of 14 emerging economies to estimate the magnitude of wealth effects on consumption. Using modern econometric techniques and quarterly data, we show that: (i) wealth effects are statistically significant and relatively large in magnitude; (ii) stock market and housing wealth effects are, generally, smaller for Latin American emerging markets; and (iii) housing wealth effects have substantially increased for Asian emerging economies in recent years. Additionally, while housing wealth effects are more important in countries with low level of financial development or low income level, financial wealth effects are stronger for countries with high stock market capitalization.