IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/rnd/arjebs/v9y2017i2p243-257.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Relationship between Household Debt and Consumption Spending in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Patience Nkala
  • Asrat Tsegaye

Abstract

Consumption has been and remains the main contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) growth in South Africa. Household debt on the other side has remained high over the years. These two economic indicators are a reflection of the well-being of an economy. This study thus examined the relationship between household debt and consumption spending, for the period between 1994 and 2013. The Johansen cointegration technique and the Vector error correction model (VECM) were utilised to test the long run and short run relationships between the variables. The Granger causality test was also employed to test the direction of causality between the variables. Results from this study have revealed that a relationship exists between household debt and consumption spending in South Africa and they have also showed that this relationship flows from household debt to consumption spending. The implications of these results are that consumption spending may be increased through other measures rather than through increasing debt. The study therefore recommends that policy makers avail more investment opportunities for households and to also create employment in a bid to increase the income of households which can then be used to increase household consumption rather than the use of debt.

Suggested Citation

  • Patience Nkala & Asrat Tsegaye, 2017. "The Relationship between Household Debt and Consumption Spending in South Africa," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 9(2), pages 243-257.
    • Handle: RePEc:rnd:arjebs:v:9:y:2017:i:2:p:243-257
    DOI: 10.22610/jebs.v9i2(J).1665
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs/article/view/1665/1434
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs/article/view/1665
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22610/jebs.v9i2(J).1665?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Allan Crawford & Umar Faruqui, 2011. "What Explains Trends in Household Debt in Canada?," Bank of Canada Review, Bank of Canada, vol. 2011(Winter), pages 3-15.
    2. Bateman, Milford, 2014. "South Africa's post-apartheid microcredit-driven calamity: Comparing 'developmental' to 'anti-developmental' local financial models," Working Papers 47, Austrian Foundation for Development Research (ÖFSE).
    3. repec:cup:cbooks:9781107034662 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Sumit Agarwal & Wenlan Qian, 2014. "Consumption and Debt Response to Unanticipated Income Shocks: Evidence from a Natural Experiment in Singapore," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(12), pages 4205-4230, December.
    5. Alimi, R. Santos, 2013. "Keynes' Absolute Income Hypothesis and Kuznets Paradox," MPRA Paper 49310, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Johansen, Soren & Juselius, Katarina, 1990. "Maximum Likelihood Estimation and Inference on Cointegration--With Applications to the Demand for Money," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 52(2), pages 169-210, May.
    7. Forget M Kapingura, 2015. "Macroeconomic Determinants of Liquidity of the Bond Market in Africa: Case Study of South Africa," Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, AMH International, vol. 7(3), pages 88-103.
    8. Brooks,Chris, 2014. "Introductory Econometrics for Finance," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107661455, December.
    9. Bunn, Philip & Rostom, May, 2014. "Household debt and spending," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 54(3), pages 304-315.
    10. Sebastian Jauch & Sebastian Watzka, 2012. "The Effect of Household Debt on Aggregate Demand - The Case of Spain," CESifo Working Paper Series 3924, CESifo.
    11. Ángel Estrada & Eva Valdeolivas & Javier Vallés & Daniel Garrote, 2014. "Household debt and uncertainty: Private consumption after the Great Recession," Working Papers 1415, Banco de España.
    12. Ogawa, Kazuo & Wan, Junmin, 2007. "Household debt and consumption: A quantitative analysis based on household micro data for Japan," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2), pages 127-142, June.
    13. Jie Gan, 2010. "Housing Wealth and Consumption Growth: Evidence from a Large Panel of Households," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(6), pages 2229-2267, June.
    14. Aldo Barba & Massimo Pivetti, 2009. "Rising household debt: Its causes and macroeconomic implications--a long-period analysis," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 33(1), pages 113-137, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michelle Koketso Kereeditse & Mubanga Mpundu, 2021. "Analysis of Household Debt in South Africa Pre- and Post-Low-Quality Asset Financial Crisis," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 11(5), pages 114-121.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yunchao, Cai & Abdullah Yusof, Selamah & Mohd Amin, Ruzita & Mohd Arshad, Mohd Nahar, 2020. "Household Debt and Household Spending Behavior: Evidence from Malaysia," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 54(1), pages 111-120.
    2. Wang, Jianqiu & Yin, Zhichao & Jiang, Jialing, 2023. "The effect of the digital divide on household consumption in China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    3. Hanming Fang & Long Wang & Yang Yang, 2022. "Housing Wealth and Online Consumer Behavior: Evidence from Xiong'an New Area in China," NBER Working Papers 30465, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Mowshumi Sharmin & Mohammad Tareque, 2018. "Econometric Analysis of the Effect of Economic Globalization, Energy Intensity, Urbanization, Industrialization and Growth on CO2 Emissions of Bangladesh," Managing Global Transitions, University of Primorska, Faculty of Management Koper, vol. 16(4 (Winter), pages 335-354.
    5. Asset Izatov, 2015. "The Role of Oil Prices, the Real Effective Exchange Rate, and Inflation in Economic Activity of Russia: An Empirical Investigation," Eastern European Business and Economics Journal, Eastern European Business and Economics Studies Centre, vol. 1(3), pages 48-70.
    6. Ye, Xiang & Yue, Pengpeng, 2024. "What matters to reshaping consumption patterns in China? Digital inclusion and supply chain," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    7. Nafeesa Yunus, 2023. "Co‐movement among oil, stock, bond, and housing markets: An analysis of U.S., Asian, and European economies," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 23(2), pages 393-436, June.
    8. Paul Francois Muzindutsi & Sinethemba Mposelwa, 2016. "Testing the Expectations Hypothesis of the Term Structure of Interest Rates in Brics Countries: A Multivariate Co-integration Approach," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 12(4), pages 289-304, October.
    9. Lena T. Cleanthous & Elena C. Eracleous & Nektarios A. Michail, 2019. "Credit, House Prices and the Macroeconomy in Cyprus," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 17(1), pages 33-55.
    10. Yang, Yang & Jiang, Jialing & Yin, Zhichao, 2021. "Social networks, shocks, and household consumption in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 111-122.
    11. Yunchao Cai & Selamah Abdullah Yusof & Ruzita Bt Mohd Amin & Mohd Nahar Mohd Arshad, 2021. "The Multi-dimensional Effect of Household Debt on Urban Individual Well-Being in Klang Valley Malaysia," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 23-44, November.
    12. Wencong Lu & Kailing Zhu, 2024. "Housing Market and Household Consumption in Urban China: A Debt Perspective," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, April.
    13. Afsin Sahin, 2019. "Loom of Symmetric Pass-Through," Economies, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-25, February.
    14. De Andrés Mosquera, Andrés, 2017. "Los determinantes a largo plazo y su contribución a la tasa de ahorro de los hogares españoles en el período 1985-2016 || Long-term determinants and its contribution to Spanish household saving rate d," Revista de Métodos Cuantitativos para la Economía y la Empresa = Journal of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Quantitative Methods for Economics and Business Administration, vol. 24(1), pages 292-339, Diciembre.
    15. Izatov, Asset, 2015. "The Role of Oil Prices, Real Effective Exchange Rate and Inflation in Economic Activity of Russia: An Empirical Investigation," MPRA Paper 70735, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2015.
    16. Ahmet Faruk Aysan & Asad Ul Islam Khan & Humeyra Topuz, 2021. "Bitcoin and Altcoins Price Dependency: Resilience and Portfolio Allocation in COVID-19 Outbreak," Risks, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-13, April.
    17. Ephrem Habtemichael Redda & Paul-Francois Muzindutsi, 2021. "Monetary Union Feasibility in the East African Community: Evidence from GPPP," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 11(6), pages 9-16.
    18. Jie Chen & William Hardin & Mingzhi Hu, 2020. "Housing, Wealth, Income and Consumption: China and Homeownership Heterogeneity," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 48(2), pages 373-405, June.
    19. Nouf Bin Ayyaf Al-Mogren, 2020. "The Impact of Oil Price Fluctuations on Saudi Arabia Stock Market: A Vector Error-Correction Model Analysis," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(6), pages 310-317.
    20. Rasha M. S. Istaiteyeh, 2017. "Economic and Social Factors in Shaping Jordan’s Life Expectancy: Empirical Analysis (1990-2014)," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 7(5), pages 1-4.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:rnd:arjebs:v:9:y:2017:i:2:p:243-257. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Muhammad Tayyab (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://ojs.amhinternational.com/index.php/jebs .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.