After the global financial crisis, there is greater awareness of the need to understand the interactions between the financial sector and the real economy and hence the potential for financial instability. Data from the financial flow of funds, previously relatively neglected, are now seen as...

In New Keynesian as well as in Post Keynesian macroeconomic models, money supply is assumed to be endogenous. The reasons for the endogeneity and the role of the financial sector in the supply process, however, are seen very different. In this paper we explicitly derive the behaviour of the...

House price booms in Anglo-Saxon economies and their collapse were an important part of the financial accelerator via consumption, construction and the banking system. This paper examines links for Germany between household portfolios, income and consumption in a six-equation system, for...

This paper surveys the literature on the linkages between asset prices and macroeconomic outcomes. It focuses on three major questions. First, what are the basic theoretical linkages between asset prices and macroeconomic outcomes? Second, what is the empirical evidence supporting these...

This paper surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on the macroeconomic implications of financial imperfections. It focuses on two major channels through which financial imperfections can affect macroeconomic outcomes. The first channel, which operates through the demand side of finance...

Three interrelated aspects typical of most financial crisis of domestic origin are brought together in a model in this paper. The first aspect is debt financed consumption boom supported by rising asset prices which ultimately leads to credit crunch and debt deflation as lenders lose confidence...

This paper examines the relationship between aggregate consumer spending and credit availability in the United States. The author finds that consumer spending falls (rises) in response to a reduction (increase) in credit availability. Moreover, she provides a formal assessment of the possibility...

The paper examines three aspects of a financial crisis of domestic origin. The first section studies the evolution of a debt-financed consumption boom supported by rising asset prices, leading to a credit crunch and fluctuations in the real economy, and, ultimately, to debt deflation. The next...

A number of studies have pointed to various mistakes that consumers might make in their consumption-saving and financial decisions. We utilize a unique market experiment conducted by a large U.S. bank to assess how systematic and costly such mistakes are in practice. The bank offered consumers a...

Barro et al. (2022) investigate the quantity of safe assets held in the cross-section of developed countries and find that the average safe-asset ratio (ratio of safe assets to total assets) was 37% in 2015 and has remained relatively stable over time. They also document a crowding-out...