IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revpoe/v16y2004i3p291-307.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does income distribution matter for effective demand? Evidence from the United States

Author

Listed:
  • Christopher Brown

Abstract

This article examines the influence of income distribution in the determination of effective demand in the US. A simple model is developed to simulate the effects of changing income inequality on the aggregate propensity to consume. The simulation results illustrate that income inequality has a substantial negative impact on consumption when household spending is assumed to be income-constrained. Econometric evidence is presented that rising private sector wage inequality had a dampening effect on the time path of consumption in the United States between 1978 and 2000. The methodology entails time series estimation of consumption specifications with a measure of income inequality (the Theil index) included among the explanatory variables. The argument is made that, ceteris paribus, rising income inequality creates a need for greater reliance on debt to sustain a given level of household spending.

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher Brown, 2004. "Does income distribution matter for effective demand? Evidence from the United States," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 291-307.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revpoe:v:16:y:2004:i:3:p:291-307
    DOI: 10.1080/0953825042000225607
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0953825042000225607
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0953825042000225607?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. Jean-Marc Burniaux & Thai-Thanh Dang & Douglas Fore & Michael Förster & Marco Mira d'Ercole & Howard Oxley, 1998. "Income Distribution and Poverty in Selected OECD Countries," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 189, OECD Publishing.
    2. Peter Gottschalk & Timothy M. Smeeding, 1997. "Cross-National Comparisons of Earnings and Income Inequality," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 633-687, June.
    3. Paul Davidson, 1978. "Money and the Real World," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, edition 0, number 978-1-349-15865-2.
    4. Davidson, Paul, 1972. "Money and the Real World," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 82(325), pages 101-115, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. L. Randall Wray, 2012. "Keynes after 75 Years: Rethinking Money as a Public Monopoly," Chapters, in: Thomas Cate (ed.), Keynes’s General Theory, chapter 15, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Arena, Richard, 1992. "Une synthèse entre post-keynésiens et néo-ricardiens est-elle encore possible?," L'Actualité Economique, Société Canadienne de Science Economique, vol. 68(4), pages 587-606, décembre.
    3. Louis-Philippe Rochon & Sergio Rossi, 2013. "Endogenous money: the evolutionary versus revolutionary views," Review of Keynesian Economics, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 1(2), pages 210-229, January.
    4. Marc Lavoie, 2020. "Was Hyman Minsky a post-Keynesian economist?," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 85-101, May.
    5. Korkut A. Erturk, 2006. "On the Minskyan Business Cycle," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_474, Levy Economics Institute.
    6. Korkut A. Erturk, 2006. "Speculation, Liquidity Preference, and Monetary Circulation," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_435, Levy Economics Institute.
    7. L. Randall Wray, 1997. "Money and Taxes: The Chartalist Approach," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_222, Levy Economics Institute.
    8. Jean-Marie Harribey, 2004. "Le travail productif dans les services non marchands : un enjeu théorique et politique pour le développement," Documents de travail 91, Groupe d'Economie du Développement de l'Université Montesquieu Bordeaux IV.
    9. Edward J. McKenna & Diane C. Zannoni, 1990. "The Relation between the Rate of Interest and Investment in Post-Keynesian and Neo-Ricardian Analysis," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 16(2), pages 133-143, Apr-Jun.
    10. Sven Larson, 2002. "Uncertainty and Consumption in Keynes's Theory of Effective Demand," Review of Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 14(2), pages 241-258.
    11. Antonio Carlos Macedo e Silva & Cláudio Hamílton dos Santos, 2008. "Peering over the edge of the short period? The Keynesian Roots of Stock-Flow Consistent Macroeconomic Models," Anais do XXXVI Encontro Nacional de Economia [Proceedings of the 36th Brazilian Economics Meeting] 200807151456380, ANPEC - Associação Nacional dos Centros de Pós-Graduação em Economia [Brazilian Association of Graduate Programs in Economics].
    12. Tracy Mott, 1988. "The Real Wage And The Marginal Product of Labor," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_12, Levy Economics Institute.
    13. Greg Hannsgen, 2007. "The Transmission Mechanism of Monetary Policy: A Critical Review," Chapters, in: Philip Arestis & Malcolm Sawyer (ed.), A Handbook of Alternative Monetary Economics, chapter 13, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    14. Burns, Tom R. & Deville, Philippe, 2003. "The three faces of the coin: a socio-economic approach to the institution of money," European Journal of Economic and Social Systems, Lavoisier, vol. 16(2), pages 149-195.
    15. Jorge Iván González, 2003. "Juan Luis Londoño: ideas para la acción," Revista de Economía Institucional, Universidad Externado de Colombia - Facultad de Economía, vol. 5(8), pages 223-239, January-J.
    16. Marx, Ive & Nolan, Brian & Olivera, Javier, 2014. "The Welfare State and Anti-Poverty Policy in Rich Countries," IZA Discussion Papers 8154, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Sunanda Sen, 2011. "The Global Crisis and the Remedial Actions: A Nonmainstream Perspective," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_677, Levy Economics Institute.
    18. Korkut Erturk, 2005. "Speculation, Liquidity Preference and Monetary Circulation," Working Paper Series, Department of Economics, University of Utah 2005_12, University of Utah, Department of Economics.
    19. Jochen Hartwig, 2004. "Keynes versus the Post Keynesians on the Principle of Effective Demand," KOF Working papers 04-88, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    20. L. Randall Wray, 2013. "Is there room for bulls, bears and States in the circuit?," Chapters, in: Louis-Philippe Rochon & Mario Seccareccia (ed.), Monetary Economies of Production, chapter 6, pages 54-70, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    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:revpoe:v:16:y:2004:i:3:p:291-307. 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/CRPE20 .

    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.