Long-term debt propagation and real reversals
Drehmann, Mathias; Juselius, Mikael; Korinek, Anton (18.04.2023)
Numero
5/2023Julkaisija
Bank of Finland
2023
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-323-434-5Tiivistelmä
We examine a propagation mechanism that arises from households’ long-term borrowing and show empirically that it has sizable real effects. The mechanism recognises that when there is long-term debt, an impulse to new borrowing generates a predictable hump-shaped path of future debt service. We confirm this pattern using anovel multi-country dataset of debt flows. Whereas new borrowing boosts output contemporaneously, debt service depresses output. Credit booms thus lead to predictablereversals in real economic activity several years later. This long-term debt propagation channel is the main reason for why indicators of credit cycles have predictive power for future economic activity.