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This paper examines the link between household credit shocks, consumption and income inequality at the national level. Empirically, we use country-specific VAR models to estimate the dynamic responses of aggregate consumption to household credit shocks. We then show in crosscountry regressions that the consumption response is more sensitive to such shocks in countries with higher levels of inequality, even after controlling for financial development. Theoretically, we construct and simulate a dynamic model based on the effect of inequality on the incidence of credit constraints, to illustrate potential causal mechanisms.

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This paper examines the effects of exchange rate depreciation to the U.S. economy in a factor‐augmented vector autoregression model using monthly data of 148 variables for the post–Bretton Woods period of 1973–2017. Exchange rate shock is identified to reflect exogenous disturbances to the foreign exchange market, and movements in exchange rate that are not accounted for by changes in the U.S. monetary policy. We find that depreciation is expansionary and inflationary to the broad U.S. economy, the current account improves over time conforming to the J‐curve theory, and monetary policy is leaning against the wind. (JEL E3, E5, F31, F32, F41)

We investigate the effects of three structural macroeconomic shocks (monetary, demand, and supply) on the labor market outcomes of black and white Americans using a factor‐augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) framework with 136 U.S. macroeconomic indicators from 1973 to 2017. Our results indicate that adverse macroeconomic shocks have differential effects on labor market outcomes for blacks and whites, hurting blacks disproportionately more than whites. Black Americans' labor market outcomes appear to be significantly more sensitive to macroeconomic shocks than are the outcomes for white Americans. Our findings indicate that business‐cycle costs are disproportionately borne by black Americans and that racial inequality in the labor market rises in recessions. The strongest effects occur in recessions caused by supply side disturbances. Our results suggest policymakers should take these heterogeneous effects into account when designing policy.