We model US household debt accumulation during the neoliberal boom as a response to emulation effects and the decline of the social wage, which has "privatized" an increasing share of the costs of providing for services such as health and education. The debt dynamics of the US economy are then...

We investigate the claim that the way in which debtor households service their debts matters for macroeconomic performance. A Kaleckian growth model is modified to incorporate working households who borrow to finance consumption that is determined, in part, by the desire to emulate the...