Bertrand and Morse find that in the years before the crisis, in areas (usually states) where consumption was high among households in the top fifth of the income distribution, household consumption was high at lower income levels as well. After ruling out a number of possible explanations, they concluded that poorer households imitated the consumption patterns of richer households in their area.
贝特兰和摩尔斯发现，在危机爆发的前几年中，收入最高的5%的家庭消费较高的地区（通常以州为单位），收入水平较低的家庭消费也较高。在剔除了一系列可能的原因后，他们认为，较穷家庭会模仿同一地区较富家庭的消费模式。