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

Author

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  • 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
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    File URL: https://www.soas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2022-10/economics-wp169.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. 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.
    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. 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.
    4. 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.
    5. 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

    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

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