The Impact of Consumer Credit Access on Unemployment

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34 Scopus citations

Abstract

Unemployed households' access to unsecured revolving credit more than tripled over the last three decades. This article analyses how both cyclical fluctuations and trend increases in credit access impact the business cycle. The main quantitative result is that credit expansions and contractions have contributed to moderately deeper and more protracted recessions over the last 40 years. As more individuals obtained credit from 1977 to 2010, cyclical credit fluctuations affected a larger share of the population and became more important determinants of employment dynamics. Even though business cycles are more volatile, newborns strictly prefer to live in the economy with growing, but fluctuating, access to credit markets.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2605-2642
Number of pages38
JournalReview of Economic Studies
Volume86
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 1 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Review of Economic Studies Limited.

Keywords

  • Business cycles
  • Default
  • E21
  • E24
  • E3
  • G21
  • J6
  • Search and matching
  • Unemployment

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