IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/revinw/v61y2015i4p759-772.html

Relative Income and Indebtedness: Evidence from Panel Data

Author

Listed:
  • Michael D. Carr
  • Arjun Jayadev

Abstract

type="main"> We examine patterns of indebtedness in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, focusing on the period surrounding the housing bubble and its aftermath (i.e., 1999–2009). Leverage increased across households, but most quickly among lower income households during this period. We find additionally that leverage grew faster for households with lower relative income compared to other households in similar demographic groups or within a state controlling for own income. Together, these findings provide evidence for the thesis that the rising indebtedness of households in the U.S. is related to high levels of inequality, and that “Veblen effects,” whereby relative income matters for individual well-being and decisions, may contribute to rising household indebtedness.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael D. Carr & Arjun Jayadev, 2015. "Relative Income and Indebtedness: Evidence from Panel Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 61(4), pages 759-772, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:revinw:v:61:y:2015:i:4:p:759-772
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/roiw.12134
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Frank, Robert H., 2008. "Should public policy respond to positional externalities?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(8-9), pages 1777-1786, August.
    2. Neumark, David & Postlewaite, Andrew, 1998. "Relative income concerns and the rise in married women's employment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 157-183, October.
    3. Matthew D. Rablen, 2008. "Relativity, Rank and the Utility of Income," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(528), pages 801-821, April.
    4. Samuel Bowles & Glenn C. Loury & Rajiv Sethi, 2014. "Group Inequality," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(1), pages 129-152, February.
    5. Andrew E. Clark & Paul Frijters & Michael A. Shields, 2008. "Relative Income, Happiness, and Utility: An Explanation for the Easterlin Paradox and Other Puzzles," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(1), pages 95-144, March.
    6. Esther Duflo & Emmanuel Saez, 2003. "The Role of Information and Social Interactions in Retirement Plan Decisions: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(3), pages 815-842.
    7. Kerwin Kofi Charles & Erik Hurst & Nikolai Roussanov, 2009. "Conspicuous Consumption and Race," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(2), pages 425-467.
    8. Michael D. Carr, 2013. "Local Area Inequality and Worker Well-Being," Review of Social Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 71(1), pages 44-64, March.
    9. Sen, Amartya, 1983. "Poor, Relatively Speaking," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 153-169, July.
    10. Kenneth J. Arrow & Partha S. Dasgupta, 2009. "Conspicuous Consumption, Inconspicuous Leisure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(541), pages 497-516, November.
    11. Oh, Seung-Yun & Park, Yongjin & Bowles, Samuel, 2012. "Veblen effects, political representation, and the reduction in working time over the 20th century," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 218-242.
    12. B. Curtis Eaton & Mukesh Eswaran, 2009. "Well‐being and Affluence in the Presence of a Veblen Good," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(539), pages 1088-1104, July.
    13. Easterlin, Richard A., 1974. "Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot? Some Empirical Evidence," MPRA Paper 111773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Jürgen Maurer & André Meier, 2008. "Smooth it Like the “Joneses?†Estimating Peer-Group Effects in Intertemporal Consumption Choice," MEA discussion paper series 08167, Munich Center for the Economics of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy.
    15. Edward N. Wolff, 2010. "Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States-- Rising Debt and the Middle-Class Squeeze--An Update to 2007," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_589, Levy Economics Institute.
    16. Layard, Richard, 1980. "Human Satisfactions and Public Policy," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(363), pages 737-750, December.
    17. van Praag, Bernard M.S., "undated". "The Relativity of the Welfare Concept," WIDER Working Papers 295601, United Nations University, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    18. Caroline Hoxby, 2000. "Peer Effects in the Classroom: Learning from Gender and Race Variation," NBER Working Papers 7867, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. George A. Akerlof & Rachel E. Kranton, 2000. "Economics and Identity," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(3), pages 715-753.
    20. Clark, Andrew E. & Oswald, Andrew J., 1996. "Satisfaction and comparison income," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 359-381, September.
    21. Cooper, Ben & Garcia-Penalosa, Cecilia & Funk, Peter, 2001. "Status Effects and Negative Utility Growth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 111(473), pages 642-665, July.
    22. Bagwell, Laurie Simon & Bernheim, B Douglas, 1996. "Veblen Effects in a Theory of Conspicuous Consumption," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 349-373, June.
    23. Jürgen Maurer & André Meier, 2008. "Smooth it Like the ‘Joneses’? Estimating Peer‐Group Effects in Intertemporal Consumption Choice," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(527), pages 454-476, March.
    24. Ioannides, Yannis M. & Zabel, Jeffrey E., 2008. "Interactions, neighborhood selection and housing demand," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 229-252, January.
    25. Christopher J. Mayer & Karen M. Pence, 2008. "Subprime mortgages: what, where, and to whom?," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2008-29, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    26. Erzo F. P. Luttmer, 2005. "Neighbors as Negatives: Relative Earnings and Well-Being," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 120(3), pages 963-1002.
    27. Frank, Robert H, 1989. "Frames of Reference and the Quality of Life," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(2), pages 80-85, May.
    28. Samuel Bowles & Yongjin Park, 2005. "Emulation, Inequality, and Work Hours: Was Thorsten Veblen Right?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(507), pages 397-412, November.
    29. Cynamon Barry Z. & Fazzari Steven M., 2008. "Household Debt in the Consumer Age: Source of Growth--Risk of Collapse," Capitalism and Society, De Gruyter, vol. 3(2), pages 1-32, October.
    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. Barbieri Góes, Maria Cristina, 2019. "Personal income distribution and progressive taxation in a neo-Kaleckian model: Insights from the Italian case," IPE Working Papers 126/2019, Berlin School of Economics and Law, Institute for International Political Economy (IPE).
    2. Ying’ai Piao & Meiru Li & Hongyuan Sun & Ying Yang, 2023. "Income Inequality, Household Debt, and Consumption Growth in the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-13, February.
    3. Borissov, Kirill & Hashimzade, Nigar, 2022. "Fiscal policy and inequality in a model with endogenous positional concerns," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    4. Lawrence M. Berger & Jason N. Houle, 2019. "Rising Household Debt and Children’s Socioemotional Well-being Trajectories," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 56(4), pages 1273-1301, August.
    5. Mariya Hake & Philipp Poyntner, 2022. "Keeping Up With the Novaks? Income Distribution as a Determinant of Household Debt in CESEE," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 68(S1), pages 224-260, April.
    6. Lepers, Etienne, 2025. "Surfing the credit wave: Government popularity as driver of credit cycles," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 90(PA).
    7. Chen, Jinzhi & Song, Lu & Wen, Xingchun & Wu, Huan, 2024. "Credit easing, income gap, and housing price fluctuation," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PB), pages 490-502.
    8. Bilin Neyapti, 2018. "Income distribution and economic crises," International Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 273-296, December.
    9. Schulz, Jan & Mayerhoffer, Daniel M., 2021. "A network approach to consumption," BERG Working Paper Series 173, Bamberg University, Bamberg Economic Research Group.
    10. Kwan Ok Lee & Masaki Mori, 2021. "Conspicuous consumption and household indebtedness," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(S2), pages 557-586, September.
    11. Stefani, Alessia De, 2020. "Debt, inequality and house prices: Explaining the dynamics of household borrowing prior to the great recession," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    12. Yunchao Cai & Qian Li, 2025. "Bridging Relative Income and Marital Satisfaction: The Role of Household Debt As a Mediator," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 1103-1116, December.
    13. 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.
    14. Hake, Mariya & Poyntner, Philipp, 2020. "Keeping up with the Novaks? Income distribution as a determinant of household debt in CESEE," BOFIT Discussion Papers 3/2020, Bank of Finland, Institute for Economies in Transition.
    15. Mathias Klein & Christopher Krause, 2020. "Income Redistribution, Consumer Credit, and Keeping Up with the Riches," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(8), pages 1937-1971, December.
    16. Hajar Chetioui & Yassine El Bouchikhi & Mohamed Makhtari & Meriem Sahli & Hind Lebdaoui, 2024. "An Investigation of the Impact of Financial Literacy on Households’ Financial Well-Being: An Emerging Market Study," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 14(3), pages 97-105, May.

    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. Michael D. Carr & Arjun Jayadev, 2013. "Relative Income and Indebtedness: Evidence from Panel Data," Working Papers 2013_02, University of Massachusetts Boston, Economics Department.
    2. repec:mab:wpaper:15 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Pascal Courty & Merwan Engineer, 2019. "A pure hedonic theory of utility and status: Unhappy but efficient invidious comparisons," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 21(4), pages 601-621, August.
    4. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/vbu6kd1s68o6r34k5bcm3iopv is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Constantinos Alexiou & Adimulya Kartiyasa, 2020. "Does greater income inequality cause increased work hours? New evidence from high income economies," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(4), pages 380-392, October.
    6. Johannes Hirata & Patricia Groß, 2025. "Relative Effects on Life Satisfaction Revisited: Social Comparison is Only Half the Story," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 26(3), pages 1-25, March.
    7. Clément Bellet, 2017. "Essays on inequality, social preferences and consumer behavior [Inégalités, préférences sociales et comportement du consommateur]," Sciences Po Economics Publications (main) tel-03455045, HAL.
    8. Li, Linyang, 2018. "Financial inclusion and poverty: The role of relative income," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 165-191.
    9. Kenneth J. Arrow & Partha S. Dasgupta, 2009. "Conspicuous Consumption, Inconspicuous Leisure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(541), pages 497-516, November.
    10. Clément Bellet, 2017. "Essays on inequality, social preferences and consumer behavior [Inégalités, préférences sociales et comportement du consommateur]," SciencePo Working papers tel-03455045, HAL.
    11. Oh, Seung-Yun & Park, Yongjin & Bowles, Samuel, 2012. "Veblen effects, political representation, and the reduction in working time over the 20th century," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 218-242.
    12. Aronsson, Thomas & Johansson-Stenman, Olof, 2014. "Positional preferences in time and space: Optimal income taxation with dynamic social comparisons," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 1-23.
    13. Michalis Nikiforos, 2015. "A Nonbehavioral Theory of Saving," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_844, Levy Economics Institute.
    14. Winkelmann, Rainer, 2012. "Conspicuous consumption and satisfaction," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 183-191.
    15. Eaton, B. Curtis & Matheson, Jesse A., 2013. "Resource allocation, affluence and deadweight loss when relative consumption matters," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 159-178.
    16. Akay, Alpaslan & Martinsson, Peter & Tesemma, Tewodros, 2025. "Positional Concerns across Generations," Working Papers in Economics 859, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics.
    17. Bilancini, Ennio & Boncinelli, Leonardo, 2019. "Wage inequality, labor income taxes, and the notion of social status," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy, vol. 13, pages 1-35.
    18. Gamannossi degl’Innocenti, Duccio & Rablen, Matthew D., 2020. "Tax evasion on a social network," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 79-91.
    19. Jantsch, Antje & Le Blanc, Julia & Schmidt, Tobias, 2024. "Beyond income: Exploring the role of household wealth for subjective well-being in Germany," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 25(7).
    20. Wen-Chun Chang, 2013. "Climbing up the Social Ladders: Identity, Relative Income, and Subjective Well-being," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(1), pages 513-535, August.
    21. Corazzini, Luca & Esposito, Lucio & Majorano, Francesca, 2012. "Reign in hell or serve in heaven? A cross-country journey into the relative vs absolute perceptions of wellbeing," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(3), pages 715-730.
    22. Adriaan R. Soetevent, 2006. "Empirics of the Identification of Social Interactions; An Evaluation of the Approaches and Their Results," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 193-228, April.

    More about this item

    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:bla:revinw:v:61:y:2015:i:4:p:759-772. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iariwea.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.