IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/soa/wpaper/169.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Corporate Liquidity and Financial Fragility: The Role of Investment, Debt and Interest

Author

Listed:
  • Jan Toporowski

    (Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK)

Abstract

The paper addresses the issue of how debt deflation may arise in a capitalist economy with a sophisticated credit system. It argues that the standard argument of debt deflationists, that debt-financed investment causes a build-up of unsustainable investment, fails to recognise that debt is back by credit. A corollary of this is that the rate of interest is not a factor in investment decisions. Financial fragility is caused by heterogeneity of balance sheets, debt financed operations in financial markets and insufficient debt-financed investment, rather than too much such investment.

Suggested Citation

  • Jan Toporowski, 2012. "Corporate Liquidity and Financial Fragility: The Role of Investment, Debt and Interest," Working Papers 169, Department of Economics, SOAS University of London, UK.
    • Handle: RePEc:soa:wpaper:169
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.soas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/economics-wp169.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marc Lavoie & Mario Seccareccia, 2001. "Minsky's financial fragility hypothesis: a missing macroeconomic link?," Chapters, in: Riccardo Bellofiore & Piero Ferri (ed.), Financial Fragility and Investment in the Capitalist Economy, chapter 4, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Bernanke, Ben & Gertler, Mark, 1989. "Agency Costs, Net Worth, and Business Fluctuations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 14-31, March.
    3. repec:bla:revinw:v:38:y:1992:i:2:p:119-63 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Engelbert Stockhammer, 2004. "Financialisation and the slowdown of accumulation," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 28(5), pages 719-741, September.
    5. Nancy & Richard Ruggles, 1992. "Household And Enterprise Saving And Capital Formation In The United States: A Market Transactions View," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 38(2), pages 119-163, June.
    6. Jan Toporowski, 2008. "Minsky's 'induced investment and business cycles'," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 32(5), pages 725-737, September.
    7. Eckhard Hein, 2007. "Interest Rate, Debt, Distribution And Capital Accumulation In A Post‐Kaleckian Model," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 310-339, May.
    8. Paul Davidson, 1978. "Money and the Real World," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, edition 0, number 978-1-349-15865-2, December.
    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. repec:hal:cepnwp:hal-01937186 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Marc Lavoie, 2014. "A comment on 'Endogenous money and effective demand': a revolution or a step backwards?," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 2(3), pages 321-332, July.
    3. Italo Pedrosa & Dany Lang, 2018. "Heterogeneity, distribution and financial fragility of non-financial firms: an agent-based stock-flow consistent (AB-SFC) model," CEPN Working Papers 2018-11, Centre d'Economie de l'Université de Paris Nord.
    4. Baines, Joseph & Hager, Sandy Brian, 2021. "The Great Debt Divergence and its Implications for the Covid-19 Crisis: Mapping Corporate Leverage as Power," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, issue Latest Ar.
    5. Mimoza Shabani & Jan Toporowski, 2015. "A Nobel Prize for the Empirical Analysis of Asset Prices," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(1), pages 62-85, January.
    6. Ítalo Pedrosa & Dany Lang, 2021. "To what extent does aggregate leverage determine financial fragility? New insights from an agent-based stock-flow consistent model," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(4), pages 1221-1275, September.

    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. Kemp-Benedict, Eric, 2015. "A Minskian extension to Kaleckian dynamics," MPRA Paper 65186, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Georgios Argitis & Stella Michopoulou, 2011. "Are Full Employment and Social Cohesion Possible Under Financialization?," Forum for Social Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(2), pages 139-155, January.
    3. Eckhard Hein & Till van Treeck, 2010. "‘Financialisation’ in Post-Keynesian Models of Distribution and Growth: A Systematic Review," Chapters, in: Mark Setterfield (ed.), Handbook of Alternative Theories of Economic Growth, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Christian Schoder, 2012. "Effective demand, exogenous normal utilization and endogenous capacity in the long run. Evidence from a CVAR analysis for the US," IMK Working Paper 103-2012, IMK at the Hans Boeckler Foundation, Macroeconomic Policy Institute.
    5. Eckhard Hein & Christian Schoder, 2011. "Interest rates, distribution and capital accumulation -- A post-Kaleckian perspective on the US and Germany," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(6), pages 693-723, November.
    6. Hiroaki Sasaki & Shinya Fujita, 2012. "The Importance Of The Retention Ratio In A Kaleckian Model With Debt Accumulation," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 417-428, July.
    7. Hein, Eckhard, 2011. "Distribution, ‘Financialisation’ and the Financial and Economic Crisis – Implications for Post-crisis Economic Policies," MPRA Paper 31180, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Ítalo Pedrosa & Dany Lang, 2018. "Heterogeneity, distribution and financial fragility of non-financial firms: an agent-based stock-flow consistent (AB-SFC) model," Working Papers hal-01937186, HAL.
    9. Parui, Pintu, 2021. "Financialization and endogenous technological change: A post-Kaleckian perspective," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 221-244.
    10. Marc Lavoie, 2020. "Was Hyman Minsky a post-Keynesian economist?," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 85-101, May.
    11. Eckhard Hein, 2010. "Shareholder Value Orientation, Distribution And Growth—Short‐ And Medium‐Run Effects In A Kaleckian Model," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(2), pages 302-332, May.
    12. Bill Lucarelli, 2011. "The Economics of Financial Turbulence," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14252, March.
    13. Yann Guy, 2010. "Industrial Major Firms Investments in a Financialized Context," Working Papers hal-00402021, HAL.
    14. Pintu Parui, 2023. "Worker household debt, functional income distribution and growth: A neo‐Kaleckian perspective," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(2), pages 446-476, May.
    15. Eckhard Hein, 2012. "Finance-dominated capitalism, re-distribution, household debt and financial fragility in a Kaleckian distribution and growth model," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 65(260), pages 11-51.
    16. Till Van Treeck, 2008. "Reconsidering The Investment–Profit Nexus In Finance‐Led Economies: An Ardl‐Based Approach," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 371-404, July.
    17. Passarella, Marco, 2012. "A simplified stock-flow consistent dynamic model of the systemic financial fragility in the ‘New Capitalism’," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(3), pages 570-582.
    18. Passarella, Marco, 2011. "The two-price model revisited. A Minskian-Kaleckian reading of the process of 'financialization'," MPRA Paper 32033, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. repec:hal:cepnwp:hal-01937186 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Hiroaki Sasaki & Shinya Fujita, 2014. "Pro-shareholder income distribution, debt accumulation, and cyclical fluctuations in a post-Keynesian model with labor supply constraints," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 11(1), pages 10-30, April.
    21. Eckhard Hein, 2012. "The Macroeconomics of Finance-Dominated Capitalism – and its Crisis," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14931, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Debt; Interest; Investment; Crisis;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:soa:wpaper:169. 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: Chandni Dwarkasing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/desoauk.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.