IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/apeclt/v13y2006i7p401-407.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does consumer debt cause economic recession? Evidence using directed acyclic graphs

Author

Listed:
  • Jin Zhang
  • David Bessler
  • David Leatham

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between consumer debt and aggregate economic activity based on time series methods and directed acyclic graphs (DAG). Quarterly US data, measured over the period 1980 to 2003, on consumer debt, gross domestic product (GDP), interest rates, housing starts, and domestic auto sales, are analysed in an Error Correction Model (ECM). Contemporaneous innovations from this ECM are given a structural representation, using recent developments in DAG modelling. The ECM and DAG components are summarized using innovation accounting techniques (impulse response functions and forecast error variance decomposition). The DAG causal pattern reveals a causal flow from GDP to consumer debt; the subsequent innovation accounting results also show that consumer debt is not exogenous in contrast to GDP and other indicators. This result concurs with a previous study based on Granger causality, but contradicts other works that claim consumer debt is a root cause of aggregate economic performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Jin Zhang & David Bessler & David Leatham, 2006. "Does consumer debt cause economic recession? Evidence using directed acyclic graphs," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(7), pages 401-407.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:apeclt:v:13:y:2006:i:7:p:401-407
    DOI: 10.1080/13504850500398658
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.informaworld.com/openurl?genre=article&doi=10.1080/13504850500398658&magic=repec&7C&7C8674ECAB8BB840C6AD35DC6213A474B5
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/13504850500398658?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Titus O. Awokuse & David A. Bessler, 2003. "Vector Autoregressions, Policy Analysis, and Directed Acyclic Graphs: An Application to the U.S. Economy," Journal of Applied Economics, Universidad del CEMA, vol. 6, pages 1-24, May.
    2. Oral Williams & David Bessler, 1997. "Cointegration: implications for the market efficiencies of the high fructose corn syrup and refined sugar markets," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 225-232.
    3. K. J. Kowalewski, 1986. "Is the consumer overextended?," Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Nov.
    4. King, Mervyn, 1994. "Debt deflation: Theory and evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 419-445, April.
    5. Selva Demiralp & Kevin D. Hoover, 2003. "Searching for the Causal Structure of a Vector Autoregression," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(s1), pages 745-767, December.
    6. Indira Kadyrkanova & David Bessler & John Nichols, 2000. "On milk prices in Kyrgyzstan," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(11), pages 1465-1473.
    7. Jae-Whak Roh & David Bessler, 1999. "Occupant death: a study with directed graphs," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 6(5), pages 303-306.
    8. Elizabeth Schmitt, 2000. "Does rising consumer debt signal future recessions?: Testing the causal relationship between consumer debt and the economy," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 28(3), pages 333-345, September.
    9. Matiur Rahman & Muhammad Mustafa, 1997. "Growths in US housing starts, real consumer debt, real GDP and the long-term real interest rate: a vector cointegration analysis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 4(12), pages 757-759.
    10. Bessler, David A. & Yang, Jian, 2003. "The structure of interdependence in international stock markets," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 261-287, April.
    11. Selva Demiralp & Kevin D. Hoover, 2003. "Searching for the Causal Structure of a Vector Autoregression," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 65(s1), pages 745-767, December.
    12. C. Alan Garner, 1996. "Can measures of the consumer debt burden reliably predict an economic slowdown?," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, vol. 81(Q IV), pages 63-76.
    13. Swanson, N.R. & Granger, C.W.J., 1994. "Impulse Response Functions Based on Causal Approach to Residual Orthogonalization in Vector Autoregressions," Papers 9-94-1, Pennsylvania State - Department of Economics.
    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. Sumei Tang & E. A. Selvanathan & S. Selvanathan, 2008. "Foreign Direct Investment, Domestic Investment and Economic Growth in China: A Time Series Analysis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(10), pages 1292-1309, October.
    2. Slutskin, L., 2017. "Graphical Statistical Methods for Studying Causal Effects. Bayesian Networks," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 36(4), pages 12-30.

    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. Perez, Stephen J. & Siegler, Mark V., 2006. "Agricultural and monetary shocks before the great depression: A graph-theoretic causal investigation," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 720-736, December.
    2. Yang, Zihui & Zhao, Yongliang, 2014. "Energy consumption, carbon emissions, and economic growth in India: Evidence from directed acyclic graphs," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 533-540.
    3. Yang, Jian & Guo, Hui & Wang, Zijun, 2006. "International transmission of inflation among G-7 countries: A data-determined VAR analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 2681-2700, October.
    4. Alessio Moneta, 2008. "Graphical causal models and VARs: an empirical assessment of the real business cycles hypothesis," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 275-300, September.
    5. Jin Zhang and David C. Broadstock, 2016. "The Causality between Energy Consumption and Economic Growth for China in a Time-varying Framework," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(China Spe).
    6. Etienne, Xiaoli L. & Irwin, Scott H. & Garcia, Philip, 2013. "Dissecting Corn Price Movements with Directed Acyclic Graphs," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 151279, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    7. Xiaojie Xu, 2017. "Contemporaneous causal orderings of US corn cash prices through directed acyclic graphs," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 731-758, March.
    8. Vitale, Jeffrey D. & Bessler, David A., 2006. "The 2004 Niger Food Crisis: What Role Can Price Discovery Play in Famine Early Warning Systems?," 2006 Annual meeting, July 23-26, Long Beach, CA 21316, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    9. Peter G. Fennell & David O'Sullivan & Antoine Godin & Stephen Kinsella, 2014. "Visualising stock flow consistent models as directed acyclic graphs," Papers 1409.4541, arXiv.org.
    10. Olagunju, Kehinde Oluseyi & Feng, Siyi & Patton, Myles, 2021. "Dynamic relationships among phosphate rock, fertilisers and agricultural commodity markets: Evidence from a vector error correction model and Directed Acyclic Graphs," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    11. Henry L. Bryant & David A. Bessler & Michael S. Haigh, 2009. "Disproving Causal Relationships Using Observational Data," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 71(3), pages 357-374, June.
    12. Lima, Elcyon Caiado & Maka, Alexis & Céspedes, Brisne, 2008. "Monetary Policy, Inflation and the Level of Economic Activity in Brazil After the Real Plan: Stylized Facts from SVAR Models," Revista Brasileira de Economia - RBE, EPGE Brazilian School of Economics and Finance - FGV EPGE (Brazil), vol. 62(2), October.
    13. Oscar Jorda, 2003. "Model-Free Impulse Responses," Working Papers 305, University of California, Davis, Department of Economics.
    14. Selva Demiralp & Kevin D. Hoover & Stephen J. Perez, 2008. "A Bootstrap Method for Identifying and Evaluating a Structural Vector Autoregression," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 70(4), pages 509-533, August.
    15. Xiaojie Xu, 2019. "Contemporaneous Causal Orderings of CSI300 and Futures Prices through Directed Acyclic Graphs," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 39(3), pages 2052-2077.
    16. Bessler, David A. & Leatham, David J. & Yang, Juan, 2005. "In Search of the "Bank Lending Channel": Causality Analysis for the Transmission Mechanism of U.S. Monetary Policy," 2005 Annual meeting, July 24-27, Providence, RI 19558, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    17. Moonsoo Park & Yanhong Jin & Alan Love, 2011. "Dynamic and contemporaneous causality in a supply chain: an application of the US beef industry," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(30), pages 4785-4801.
    18. Nazmus Sadat Khan, 2016. "In search of causality between debt and growth: a graph theoretic approach," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(2), pages 677-687.
    19. Yang, Jian & Tong, Meng & Yu, Ziliang, 2021. "Housing market spillovers through the lens of transaction volume: A new spillover index approach," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 351-378.
    20. Alessio Moneta, 2005. "Causality in macroeconometrics: some considerations about reductionism and realism," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(3), pages 433-453.

    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:taf:apeclt:v:13:y:2006:i:7:p:401-407. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEL20 .

    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.