Debt-Driven Business Cycles in a Stock-Flow Consistent Agent-Based Model

This paper studies the effects of firms’ indebtedness on the dynamics of a monetary production economy. Starting from the work of Minsky and Palley, we build a stock-flow consistent agent-based model that emphasizes the effects of firms’ debt on macro dynamics and produce endogenous business cycles. We identify two effects of debt: an aggregate demand increasing effect and a functional income distribution effect and describe their consequences during the different phases of the cycle. These effects are specific to this study but are compatible with the existing literature.