Inequality and Imbalances: a Monetary Union Agent-Based Model

Our paper investigates the impact of rising inequality in a two-country macroeconomic model with anagent-based household sector characterised by peer effects in consumption. In particular, the modelhighlights the role of inequality in determining diverging balance of payments dynamics within a currencyunion. Inequality may drive the two countries into different growth patterns: where peer effects inconsumption interact with higher credit availability, rising income inequality leads to the emergence of adebt-led growth. Where social norms determine weaker emulation and credit availability is lower, anexport-led regime arises. Eventually, a crisis emerges endogenously due to the sudden-stop of capitalows from the net lending country, triggered by the excessive risk associated to the dramatic amount ofprivate debt accumulated by households in the borrowing country. Monte Carlo simulations for a widerange of calibrations confirm the robustness of our results.