Are Millennials Different?

56 Pages Posted: 3 Dec 2018 Last revised: 21 Feb 2019

See all articles by Christopher Johann Kurz

Christopher Johann Kurz

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Geng Li

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Daniel J. Vine

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Date Written: November, 2018

Abstract

The economic wellbeing of the millennial generation, which entered its working-age years around the time of the 2007-09 recession, has received considerable attention from economists and the popular press. This chapter compares the socioeconomic and demographic characteristics of millennials with those of earlier generations and compares their income, saving, and consumption expenditures. Relative to members of earlier generations, millennials are more racially diverse, more educated, and more likely to have deferred marriage; these comparisons are continuations of longer-run trends in the population. Millennials are less well off than members of earlier generations when they were young, with lower earnings, fewer assets, and less wealth. For debt, millennials hold levels similar to those of Generation X and more than those of the baby boomers. Conditional on their age and other factors, millennials do not appear to have preferences for consumption that differ signi ficantly from those of earlier generations.

JEL Classification: D12, D15, D14

Suggested Citation

Kurz, Christopher Johann and Li, Geng and Vine, Daniel J., Are Millennials Different? (November, 2018). FEDS Working Paper No. 2018-80, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3294464 or http://dx.doi.org/10.17016/FEDS.2018.080

Christopher Johann Kurz (Contact Author)

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ( email )

20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20551

Geng Li

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ( email )

20th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20551
United States

Daniel J. Vine

Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ( email )

20th and C Streets, NW
Mail Stop 82
Washington, DC 20551
United States

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