IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/2061.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Debt Problems and Macroeconomic Policies

Author

Listed:
  • Lawrence H. Summers

Abstract

This paper examines the recent dramatic increase in the ratio of US non-financial debt to GNP. It concludes that it is largely the result of federal budget deficits. There does not appear to have been a major change in traditional patterns of private sector borrowing in recent years. The excessive accumulation of Federal debt probably threatens financial stability more than recent increases in private debt.

Suggested Citation

  • Lawrence H. Summers, 1986. "Debt Problems and Macroeconomic Policies," NBER Working Papers 2061, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2061
    Note: EFG
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w2061.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jensen, Michael C, 1986. "Agency Costs of Free Cash Flow, Corporate Finance, and Takeovers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(2), pages 323-329, May.
    2. Albert M. Wojnilower, 1980. "The Central Role of Credit Crunches in Recent Financial History," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 11(2), pages 277-340.
    3. Mankiw, N Gregory & Summers, Lawrence H, 1986. "Money Demand and the Effects of Fiscal Policies," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 18(4), pages 415-429, November.
    4. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1982. "Debt and Economic Activity in the United States," NBER Chapters, in: The Changing Roles of Debt and Equity in Financing U.S. Capital Formation, pages 91-110, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Lawrence H. Summers, 1985. "Issues in National Savings Policy," NBER Working Papers 1710, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1981. "Debt and Economic Activity in the United States," NBER Working Papers 0704, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. David, Paul A & Scadding, John L, 1974. "Private Savings: Ultrarationality, Aggregation, and "Denison's Law."," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(2), pages 225-249, Part I, M.
    8. Miller, Merton H, 1977. "Debt and Taxes," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 261-275, May.
    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. International Monetary Fund, 2010. "Fiscal Policy and the Current Account," IMF Working Papers 2010/121, International Monetary Fund.
    2. S M Ali Abbas & Jacques Bouhga-Hagbe & Antonio Fatás & Paolo Mauro & Ricardo C Velloso, 2011. "Fiscal Policy and the Current Account," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 59(4), pages 603-629, November.
    3. Dumitriu, Ramona & Stefanescu, Răzvan, 2020. "Iluzii financiare, Partea întâi [Financial Illusions, Part 1]," MPRA Paper 101201, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 17 Jun 2020.
    4. Lori L. Leachman & Michael Thorpe, 1998. "Intertemporal Solvency in the Small Open Economy of Australia," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 74(226), pages 231-242, September.
    5. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1990. "Views on the Likelihood of Financial Crisis," NBER Working Papers 3407, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Demdoumi, Meriem, 2016. "La gestion structurelle des déficits jumeaux au Maroc et la recherche d’une stratégie d’équilibre [Structural management of twin deficits in Morocco and Finding an equilibrium strategy]," MPRA Paper 71533, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2016.
    7. Benjamin A. Friedman & E. Gerald Corrigan & Irvine H. Sprague & Norman Strunk & Joseph A. Grundfest, 1991. "The Risks of Financial Crises," NBER Chapters, in: The Risk of Economic Crisis, pages 19-83, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. El-Baz, Osama, 2014. "Empirical Investigation of the Twin Deficits Hypothesis: The Egyptian Case (1990-2012)," MPRA Paper 53428, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Bilman, Mustafa Erhan & Karaoğlan, Sadık, 2020. "Does the twin deficit hypothesis hold in the OECD countries under different real interest rate regimes?," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 205-215.
    10. Olalekan Emmanuel Obademi & Olawale. O. Okubanjo, 2013. "External Debt and Nigeria’s Economic Growth Nexus, Matters Arising," International Journal of Financial Economics, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 1(2), pages 61-66.
    11. Yuan Chang, 2016. "Financial Soundness Indicator, Financial Cycle, Credit Cycle and Business Cycle£­Evidence from Taiwan," International Journal of Economics and Finance, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 8(4), pages 166-182, April.
    12. Giancarlo Corsetti & Gernot J. Müller, 2006. "Twin deficits: squaring theory, evidence and common sense [‘Temporary and permanent government spending in an open economy: some evidence for the United Kingdom’]," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 21(48), pages 598-638.
    13. Lori Leachman & Bill Francis, 2002. "Twin Deficits: Apparition or Reality?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(9), pages 1121-1132.
    14. Jer-Shiou Chiou & Pei-Shan Wu & Antony Chang & Bor-Yi Huang, 2007. "The asymmetric information and price manipulation in stock market," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(7), pages 883-891.
    15. Helena Glebocki Keefe & Ralf Hepp, 2024. "The effects of European fiscal discipline measures on current account balances," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 251-283, February.

    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. Smant, David / D.J.C., 2002. "Bank credit in the transmission of monetary policy: A critical review of the issues and evidence," MPRA Paper 19816, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Mark Gertler & R. Glenn Hubbard, 1988. "Financial factors in business fluctuations," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 33-78.
    3. Kim, Sang-Joon & Bae, John & Oh, Hannah, 2019. "Financing strategically: The moderation effect of marketing activities on the bifurcated relationship between debt level and firm valuation of small and medium enterprises," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 663-681.
    4. Bae, John & Kim, Sang-Joon & Oh, Hannah, 2017. "Taming polysemous signals: The role of marketing intensity on the relationship between financial leverage and firm performance," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 29-40.
    5. Drobetz, Wolfgang & Pensa, Pascal & Wöhle, Claudia B., 2004. "Kapitalstrukturtheorie in Theorie und Praxis: Ergebnisse einer Fragebogenuntersuchung," Working papers 2004/09, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    6. Correia, Ricardo & Población, Javier, 2015. "A structural model with Explicit Distress," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 112-130.
    7. Nippel, Peter, 2006. "Capital structure decisions under the German tax code," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 607, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    8. du Jardin, Philippe & Séverin, Eric, 2011. "Dividend policy," MPRA Paper 44382, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. R. Glenn Hubbard, 1990. "Introduction to "Asymmetric Information, Corporate Finance, and Investment"," NBER Chapters, in: Asymmetric Information, Corporate Finance, and Investment, pages 1-14, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Bouzguenda, Karima, 2018. "Emotional intelligence and financial decision making: Are we talking about a paradigmatic shift or a change in practices?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 273-284.
    11. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Chen, Xiaoyan & Ling, Xin & Smith, Tom & Zhu, Yushu, 2017. "Research in finance: A review of influential publications and a research agenda," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 188-199.
    12. Luc Renneboog & Peter G. Szilagyi, 2008. "Corporate Restructuring and Bondholder Wealth," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 14(4), pages 792-819, September.
    13. Rana El Bahsh & Ali Alattar & Aziz N. Yusuf, 2018. "Firm, Industry and Country Level Determinants of Capital Structure: Evidence from Jordan," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 8(2), pages 175-190.
    14. Kashyap, Anil K & Stein, Jeremy C & Wilcox, David W, 1993. "Monetary Policy and Credit Conditions: Evidence from the Composition of External Finance," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 78-98, March.
    15. Robert Martin Hull, 2023. "Nonprofits and C Corporations: Performance Comparison," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-39, January.
    16. Yong Fan, 2016. "Effect of Corporate Income Tax and Marketization Degree on Capital Structure of Chinese Listed Companies," Journal of Tax Reform, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, vol. 2(1), pages 43-58.
    17. Elif Acar & Gamze Vural & Emin Hüseyin Çetenak, 2020. "Evidence for Financial Hierarchy Theory in Capital Structure Decisions: Data from BIST Companies," Bogazici Journal, Review of Social, Economic and Administrative Studies, Bogazici University, Department of Economics, vol. 34(1), pages 29-50.
    18. Benjamin M. Friedman, 1986. "Increasing Indebtedness and Financial Stability in the United States," NBER Working Papers 2072, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Sanjiva Prasad & Christopher J. Green & Victor Murinde, 2005. "Company Financial Structure: A Survey and Implications for Developing Economies," Chapters, in: Christopher J. Green & Colin Kirkpatrick & Victor Murinde (ed.), Finance and Development, chapter 12, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Steven M. Fazzari & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1988. "Financing Constraints and Corporate Investment," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 19(1), pages 141-206.

    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:nbr:nberwo:2061. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.