Leverage and Deepening Business Cycle Skewness
63 Pages Posted: 28 Aug 2017
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Leverage and Deepening Business Cycle Skewness
Leverage and Deepening Business Cycle Skewness
Leverage and Deepening Business Cycle Skewness
Date Written: August 24, 2017
Abstract
We document that the U.S. economy has been characterized by an increasingly negative business cycle asymmetry over the last three decades. This finding can be explained by the concurrent increase in the financial leverage of households and firms. To support this view, we devise and estimate a dynamic general equilibrium model with collateralized borrowing and occasionally binding credit constraints. Higher leverage increases the likelihood that constraints become slack in the face of expansionary shocks, while contractionary shocks are further amplied due to binding constraints. As a result, booms become progressively smoother and more prolonged than busts. We are therefore able to reconcile a more negatively skewed business cycle with the Great Moderation in cyclical volatility. Finally, in line with recent empirical evidence, financially-driven expansions lead to deeper contractions, as compared with equally-sized non-financial expansions.
Keywords: Credit constraints, business cycles, skewness, deleveraging
JEL Classification: E32, E44
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation