Comment on “Mental Accounts and Consumption Sensitivity Across the Distribution of Liquid Assets” by Graham and McDowall (2026)

• Authors: Jaime Gimeno-Ribes
• BSE Working Paper: 1551 | January 2026
• Keywords: mental accounting, marginal propensities to consume, intertemporal choice

This note revisits the analytical model in Section IV of Graham and McDowall (2026). First, it points out what seem to be a number of mistakes in their characterization of said model. Then it discusses how these mistakes may invalidate their analytical results presented in Section IV, as well as any interpretation of more involved models, like the one in their Section V, that is based on these analytical results. Finally, it offers a brief conclusion.