Do macroprudential measures increase inequality? Evidence from the euro area household survey

Oana-Maria Georgescu and Diego Vila Martín

No 2567, Working Paper Series from European Central Bank

Abstract: Borrower-based macroprudential (MP) policies - such as caps on loan-to-value (LTV) ratios and debt-service-to-income (DSTI) limits - contain the build-up of systemic risk by reducing the probability and conditional impact of a crisis. While LTV/DSTI limits can increase inequality at introduction, they can dampen the increase in inequality under adverse macroeconomic conditions. The relative size of these opposing effects is an empirical question. We conduct counterfactual simulations under different macroeconomic and macroprudential policy scenarios using granular income and wealth data from the Households Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) for Ireland, Italy, Netherlands and Portugal. Simulation results show that borrower-based measures have a moderate negative welfare impact in terms of wealth inequality and a negligible impact on income inequality. JEL Classification: G21, G28, G51

Keywords: household debt; inequality; macroprudential policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-cba, nep-eec and nep-mac
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20212567

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