Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/277405 
Year of Publication: 
2018
Citation: 
[Journal:] European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention (EJEEP) [ISSN:] 2052-7772 [Volume:] 15 [Issue:] 1 [Year:] 2018 [Pages:] 47-70
Publisher: 
Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham
Abstract: 
This paper discusses the rise of top-end inequality and its effects on household consumption, saving, and debt in the United States during the 1920s by applying a non-standard theory of consumption, the relative income hypothesis, to the period of interest. Analysing the relevant data descriptively, the paper argues that income inequality is linked to the increase of household consumption and the simultaneous decline of household savings as well as rapidly increasing household debt. Thus, the rise of top-end inequality in connection with a broader institutional change, such as the deregulation of financial markets, has contributed to a build-up of financial and macroeconomic instability in the period leading to the Great Depression.
Subjects: 
income distribution
relative income hypothesis
household debt
financial innovation
Great Depression
JEL: 
D31
D33
E21
E25
N12
N22
N32
N62
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Creative Commons License: 
cc-by Logo
Document Type: 
Article

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.