Household balance sheets shape not only the magnitude of macroeconomic fluctuations but also their incidence across the population. This thesis quantifies these distributional effects within a tractable Three-Agent New Keynesian (THRANK) framework inc...
Household balance sheets shape not only the magnitude of macroeconomic fluctuations but also their incidence across the population. This thesis quantifies these distributional effects within a tractable Three-Agent New Keynesian (THRANK) framework incorporating housing collateral and household debt. The economy features Ricardian savers, leveraged homeowners subject to collateral constraints, and hand-to-mouth workers.
The analysis proceeds by combining standard impulse-response exercises with counterfactual channel-closure experiments. In these experiments, I selectively mute specific transmission mechanisms—cash-flow exposure via realized debt-service costs, collateral revaluation through housing prices, labor-income movements, and tax/financing effects—to isolate their respective contributions to household dynamics.
Two recurrent themes emerge. The first is the state dependence of financial depth. As the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio increases, the consumption of leveraged households becomes increasingly governed by balance-sheet variables (repayment burdens and collateral valuations) rather than aggregate income fluctuations. The second concerns the interaction between financing and policy. Debt-financed government spending boosts labor income on impact, benefiting hand-to-mouth workers; however, it also generates anticipated fiscal adjustments that depress consumption for savers and borrowers through the tax channel. In high-debt states, general-equilibrium movements in interest rates and house prices reinforce this contraction for borrowers. Finally, the policy mix matters quantitatively: a fiscal expansion combined with monetary tightening tends to produce a more persistent interest-rate path and intensified balance-sheet stress, whereas rapid debt stabilization facilitates a quicker normalization of rates.