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Consumer and Corporate Debt: A Neo-Kaleckian Synthesis

Author

Listed:
  • Yun Kim

    (Department of Economics, Trinity College)

  • Alan Isaac

    (Department of Economics, American University)

Abstract

Models of the macrodynamic impact of private debt tend to emphasize the role of corporate debt. Corporate leverage affects macroeconomic outcomes and can contribute to financial fragility. We show that consumer debt is also important. We include consumer as well as corporate debt in a stock-flow consistent neo-Kaleckian growth model and explore the macrodynamic ramifications. We find that consumer credit conditions influence effective demand, the profit rate, and economic growth. The inclusion of consumer debt as well as corporate debt in our model substantially alters the model's dynamics. We compare our short-run, transition, and long-run results to models containing a single type of debt. Some of our results confirm the results of simpler models. For example, we find that a surge in animal spirits is good for steady-state growth. We show that consumer borrowing can also help to sustain aggregate demand, that looser consumer credit conditions have a steady-state growth effect, and that demand augmenting changes can enhance system stability. In this sense, looser consumer credit conditions are good for macroeconomic stability.

Suggested Citation

  • Yun Kim & Alan Isaac, 2011. "Consumer and Corporate Debt: A Neo-Kaleckian Synthesis," Working Papers 1108, Trinity College, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:tri:wpaper:1108
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Toshio Watanabe, 2020. "Financial Instability and Effects of Monetary Policy," Bulletin of Political Economy, Bulletin of Political Economy, vol. 14(1), pages 117-145, June.
    2. Yun K. Kim & Gilberto Tadeu Lima & Mark Setterfield, 2017. "Political Aspects of Household Debt," Working Papers 1724, New School for Social Research, Department of Economics.
    3. Robert A. Blecker, 2016. "Wage-led versus profit-led demand regimes: the long and the short of it," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 4(4), pages 373-390, October.
    4. 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.
    5. Soon Ryoo, 2016. "Household debt and housing bubbles: a Minskian approach to boom-bust cycles," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 26(5), pages 971-1006, December.
    6. 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.
    7. Pintu Parui, 2021. "A simple macro‐model of COVID‐19 with special reference to India," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 650-678, November.
    8. Pintu Parui, 2024. "Fiscal expansion, government debt and economic growth: a post-Keynesian perspective," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(1), pages 117-154, January.
    9. Engelbert Stockhammer & Rafael Wildauer, 2016. "Debt-driven growth? Wealth, distribution and demand in OECD countries," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 40(6), pages 1609-1634.
    10. Charles, Sébastien, 2019. "Le multiplicateur budgétaire endogène au cycle dans un modèle macroéconomique post-keynésien [The state-dependent fiscal Multiplier in a Post-Keynesian Macroeconomic Model]," Revue de la Régulation - Capitalisme, institutions, pouvoirs, Association Recherche et Régulation, vol. 26.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. Greg Hannsgen & Tai Young-Taft, 2015. "Inside Money in a Kaldor-Kalecki-Steindl Fiscal Policy Model: The Unit of Account, Inflation, Leverage, and Financial Fragility," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_839, Levy Economics Institute.
    14. Soon Ryoo, 2013. "Minsky cycles in Keynesian models of growth and distribution," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 1(1), pages 37-60, January.
    15. Yun K. Kim, 2016. "Macroeconomic effects of household debt: an empirical analysis," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 4(2), pages 127-150, April.
    16. repec:hal:cepnwp:hal-01937186 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Eckhard Hein, 2017. "Post-Keynesian macroeconomics since the mid 1990s: main developments," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 14(2), pages 131-172, September.
    18. Yun K. Kim & Alan G. Isaac, 2017. "Firms’ Retention Behavior, Debt, and Macroeconomic Dynamics," Working Papers 2017_04, University of Massachusetts Boston, Economics Department.
    19. Hein, Eckhard & Dodig, Nina, 2014. "Financialisation, distribution, growth and crises: Long-run tendencies," IPE Working Papers 35/2014, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    20. Joana David Avritzer & Lídia Brochier, 2022. "Household credit-financed consumption and the debt service ratio: tackling endogenous autonomous demand in the Supermultiplier model," Working Papers PKWP2219, Post Keynesian Economics Society (PKES).
    21. Yun Kim & Soon Ryoo, 2013. "Income Distribution, Consumer Debt, and Keeping Up with the Joneses: a Kaldor-Minsky-Veblen Model," Working Papers 1302, Trinity College, Department of Economics.
    22. 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.
    23. 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.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    consumer debt; corporate debt; leverage; growth; stability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E12 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General Aggregative Models - - - Keynes; Keynesian; Post-Keynesian; Modern Monetary Theory
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • O41 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - One, Two, and Multisector Growth Models

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