Millennials, long presumed to have less interest in the nonstop consumption of goods that underpins the American economy, might not be that different after all, a new study from the Federal Reserve says.
Their spending habits are a lot like the generations that came before them - they just have less money at this point in their lives, the study found.
The group born between 1981 and 1997 has fallen behind because many of them came of age during the financial crisis.
"We find little evidence that millennial households have tastes and preferences for consumption that are lower than those of earlier generations, once the effects of age, income and a wide range of demographic characteristics are taken into account," the authors wrote.
Their findings are grounded in an analysis of spending, income, debt, net worth and demographic factors among different generations. The conclusion that millennials aren't all that different also holds for the researchers' more granular examination of expenditure on cars, food, and housing.
"It primarily is the differences in average age and then differences in average income that explain a large and important portion of the consumption wedge between millennials and other cohorts," they conclude.
Bloomberg..