These are pretty basic calculations, but they are the kind that could not be made from data previously available to researchers. This detailed information was known only by you and your bank. “Having that kind of data on individuals is potentially a really useful thing,” said Wade Pfau, a professor at the American College of Financial Services. “This seems like exactly the kind of research question a big bank could answer.”

Ms. Farrell, previously an economic adviser to President Obama, said she saw the new institute as an opportunity to answer questions about the workings of the economy by tapping into the bank’s vast collection of data. “The recession exposed a lot of questions around how the economy really operates,” she said. “Understanding the complexity, the interconnectedness, the sheer scale of the economy today would benefit from granular, on-the-ground information.”

The study aimed to identify households that bank primarily with Chase — those with at least $500 in monthly deposits, five monthly withdrawals and a Chase credit card — and then supplemented the bank’s records from other sources. Like other research that taps “big data” — vast collections of individual records — the aggregate numbers do not reveal the details of any individual household’s transactions.

There’s already a lot of evidence that income volatility has increased. A 2012 study by Karen Dynan of the Brookings Institution, and two co-authors, found that income volatility increased by about 30 percent between the early 1970s and 2008 as fewer workers maintained steady employment at a steady wage.

The surprise in the new study was the volatility of consumption. The study found that consumption is not particularly synchronized with income. Households, in other words, are quite likely to experience months in which income falls to a relative low even as consumption hits a relative high.

There are caveats to the conclusion that households should save more. Money kept in savings earns next to nothing. Every dollar not producing something is a lost opportunity.

Moreover, even if people are underestimating their liquidity needs, it’s likely that some of the variability does not come as a complete surprise. Payments to the government spike in April. Spending on consumer goods peaks around Christmas. Workers paid weekly intermittently get five paydays in a month.

The study does not show how often households are actually caught short. But it does suggest that thinking about monthly cash flow as varying within a range, rather than aiming at an average, may be helpful to avoid that fate.