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Income Distribution, Consumer Debt and Keeping up with the Joneses

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  • Soon Ryoo
  • Yun K. Kim

Abstract

We extend Kaldor's theory of income distribution to include workers' debt accumulation and their motive to emulate rentiers' consumption. Our results show that (i) the interaction between income distribution and emulation can produce instability; (ii) instability is more likely when the workers' emulation motive is strong and bankers' lending decisions are highly accommodating; and (iii) a plausible assumption on the non-linearity of emulation behavior can generate a limit cycle. Our analysis provides an alternative perspective on the increase in household indebtedness for the decades before the recent crisis and the subsequent deleveraging process.

Suggested Citation

  • Soon Ryoo & Yun K. Kim, 2014. "Income Distribution, Consumer Debt and Keeping up with the Joneses," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(4), pages 585-618, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:metroe:v:65:y:2014:i:4:p:585-618
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    Cited by:

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    3. Soon Ryoo, 2016. "Inequality of Income and Wealth in the Long Run: A Kaldorian Perspective," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 67(2), pages 429-457, May.
    4. Mathias Klein & Christopher Krause, 2020. "Income Redistribution, Consumer Credit, and Keeping Up with the Riches," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(8), pages 1937-1971, December.
    5. Cesar Leandro, Julio & Botelho, Delane, 2022. "Consumer over-indebtedness: A review and future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 535-551.
    6. Fierro, Luca Eduardo & Giri, Federico & Russo, Alberto, 2023. "Inequality-constrained monetary policy in a financialized economy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 366-385.
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    8. Stockhammer, Engelbert & Wildauer, Rafael, 2018. "Expenditure Cascades, Low Interest Rates or Property Booms? Determinants of Household Debt in OECD Countries," Review of Behavioral Economics, now publishers, vol. 5(2), pages 85-121, September.
    9. Roberto Veneziani & Luca Zamparelli & Maria Nikolaidi & Engelbert Stockhammer, 2017. "Minsky Models: A Structured Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 1304-1331, December.
    10. Yun K. Kim, 2020. "Household Debt Accumulation and the Great Recession of the United States: A Comparative Perspective," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(1), pages 26-49, March.
    11. Maria Nikolaidi, 2017. "Three decades of modelling Minsky: what we have learned and the way forward," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 14(2), pages 222-237, September.
    12. Fernando Rugitsky, 2016. "Growth, distribution, and sectoral heterogeneity: Reading the Kaleckians in Latin America," Economia, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics], vol. 17(3), pages 265-278.
    13. Rafael Wildauer, 2016. "Determinants of US household debt: New evidence from the SCF," Working Papers PKWP1608, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    14. Laura Carvalho & Fernando Rugitsky, 2015. "Growth and distribution in Brazil the 21st century: revisiting the wage-led versus profit-led debate," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2015_25, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
    15. Engelbert Stockhammer & Giorgos Gouzoulis, 2023. "Debt-GDP cycles in historical perspective: the case of the USA (1889–2014)," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 32(2), pages 317-335.
    16. Gräbner-Radkowitsch, Claudius & Heimberger, Philipp & Kapeller, Jakob & Landesmann, Michael & Schütz, Bernhard, 2022. "The evolution of debtor-creditor relationships within a monetary union: Trade imbalances, excess reserves and economic policy," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 262-289.
    17. Brochier, Lidia & Freitas, Fábio, 2019. "Stock-flow ratios and the paradox of debt in canonical neo-kaleckian and supermultiplier models," MPRA Paper 96252, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Giraud, Gaël & Grasselli, Matheus, 2021. "Household debt: The missing link between inequality and secular stagnation," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 901-927.
    19. Michel Eduardo Betancourt Gómez, 2023. "Income distribution, banks and managers: A linear joint‐production model with financial assets," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(1), pages 74-93, February.
    20. Gustavo Pereira Serra, 2023. "Household debt, student loan forgiveness, and human capital investment: a neo-Kaleckian approach," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 173-206, January.
    21. Yun K. Kim, 2017. "Rise of Household Debt and the Great Recession in the US: Comparative Perspectives," Working Papers 2017_03, University of Massachusetts Boston, Economics Department.
    22. Hulya Dagdeviren & Jiayi Balasuriya & Christopher Nicholas, 2022. "Spatial dynamics of post-crisis deleveraging [Financial geography II: financial geographies of housing and real estate]," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(6), pages 1225-1246.

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