What Is Aggregate Demand?

Aggregate demand is a measurement of the total amount of demand for all finished goods and services produced in an economy. Aggregate demand is commonly expressed as the total amount of money exchanged for those goods and services at a specific price level and point in time.

Understanding Aggregate Demand

Aggregate demand is a macroeconomic term and can be compared with the gross domestic product (GDP). GDP represents the total amount of goods and services produced in an economy while aggregate demand is the demand or desire for those goods. Aggregate demand and GDP commonly increase or decrease together.

Aggregate demand equals GDP only in the long run after adjusting for the price level. Short-run aggregate demand measures total output for a single nominal price level without adjusting for inflation. Other variations in calculations can occur depending on the methodologies used and the various components.

Aggregate demand consists of all consumer goods, capital goods, exports, imports, and government spending programs. All variables are considered equal if they trade at the same market value.

Aggregate Demand Components

Aggregate demand is determined by the overall collective spending on products and services by all economic sectors on the procurement of goods and services by four components:

Consumption Spending

Consumer spending represents the demand by individuals and households within the economy. While there are several factors in determining consumer demand, the most important is consumer incomes and the level of taxation.

Investment Spending

Investment spending represents businesses’ investment to support current output and increase production capability. It may include spending on new capital assets such as equipment, facilities, and raw materials.

Government Spending

Government spending represents the demand produced by government programs, such as infrastructure spending and public goods. This does not include services such as Medicare or social security, because these programs simply transfer demand from one group to another.

Net Exports

Net exports represent the demand for foreign goods, as well as the foreign demand for domestic goods. It is calculated by subtracting the total value of a country’s exports from the total value of all imports.

Aggregate Demand Formula

The equation for aggregate demand adds the amount of consumer spending, investment spending, government spending, and the net of exports and imports. The formula is shown as follows:

$\begin{aligned} &\text{Aggregate Demand} = \text{C} + \text{I} + \text{G} + \text{Nx} \\ &\textbf{where:}\\ &\text{C} = \text{Consumer spending on goods and services} \\ &\text{I} = \text{Private investment and corporate spending on} \\ &\text{non-final capital goods (factories, equipment, etc.)} \\ &\text{G} = \text{Government spending on public goods and social} \\ &\text{services (infrastructure, Medicare, etc.)} \\ &\text{Nx} = \text{Net exports (exports minus imports)} \\ \end{aligned}$​Aggregate Demand=C+I+G+Nxwhere:C=Consumer spending on goods and servicesI=Private investment and corporate spending onnon-final capital goods (factories, equipment, etc.)G=Government spending on public goods and socialservices (infrastructure, Medicare, etc.)Nx=Net exports (exports minus imports)​

The aggregate demand formula above is also used by the Bureau of Economic Analysis to measure GDP in the U.S.

What Affects Aggregate Demand?

Interest Rates

Interest rates affect decisions made by consumers and businesses. Lower interest rates will lower the borrowing costs for big-ticket items such as appliances, vehicles, and homes and companies will be able to borrow at lower rates, often leading to capital spending increases. Higher interest rates increase the cost of borrowing for consumers and companies and spending tends to decline or grow at a slower pace.

Income and Wealth

As household wealth increases, aggregate demand typically increases. Conversely, a decline in wealth usually leads to lower aggregate demand. When consumers are feeling good about the economy, they tend to spend more and save less.

Inflation Expectations

Consumers who anticipate that inflation will increase or prices will rise tend to make immediate purchases leading to rises in aggregate demand. But if consumers believe prices will fall in the future, aggregate demand typically falls.

Currency Exchange Rates

When the value of the U.S. dollar falls, foreign goods will become more expensive. Meanwhile, goods manufactured in the U.S. will become cheaper for foreign markets. Aggregate demand will, therefore, increase. When the value of the dollar increases, foreign goods are cheaper and U.S. goods become more expensive to foreign markets, and aggregate demand decreases.

Economic Conditions and Aggregate Demand

Economic conditions can impact aggregate demand whether those conditions originated domestically or internationally. The financial crisis of 2007-08, sparked by massive amounts of mortgage loan defaults, and the ensuing Great Recession, offer a good example of a decline in aggregate demand due to economic conditions.

With businesses suffering from less access to capital and fewer sales, they began to lay off workers and GDP growth contracted in 2008 and 2009, resulting in a total production contraction in the economy during that period. A poor-performing economy and rising unemployment led to a decline in personal consumption or consumer spending. Personal savings also surged as consumers held onto cash due to an uncertain future and instability in the banking system.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused reductions in both aggregate supply or production, and aggregate demand or spending. Social distancing measures and concerns about the spread of the virus caused a significant decrease in consumer spending, particularly in services as many businesses closed. These dynamics lowered aggregate demand in the economy. As aggregate demand fell, businesses either laid off part of their workforces or otherwise slowed production as employees contracted COVID-19 at high rates.

Aggregate Demand vs. Aggregate Supply

In times of economic crises, economists often debate as to whether aggregate demand slowed, leading to lower growth, or GDP contracted, leading to less aggregate demand. Whether demand leads to growth or vice versa is economists’ version of the age-old question of what came first—the chicken or the egg.

Boosting aggregate demand also boosts the size of the economy regarding measured GDP. However, this does not prove that an increase in aggregate demand creates economic growth. Since GDP and aggregate demand share the same calculation, it only indicates that they increase concurrently. The equation does not show which is the cause and which is the effect.

Early economic theories hypothesized that production is the source of demand. The 18th-century French classical liberal economist Jean-Baptiste Say stated that consumption is limited to productive capacity and that social demands are essentially limitless, a theory referred to as Say’s Law of Markets.

Say’s law, the basis of supply-side economics, ruled until the 1930s and the advent of the theories of British economist John Maynard Keynes. By arguing that demand drives supply, Keynes placed total demand in the driver’s seat. Keynesian macroeconomists have since believed that stimulating aggregate demand will increase real future output and the total level of output in the economy is driven by the demand for goods and services and propelled by money spent on those goods and services.

Keynes considered unemployment to be a byproduct of insufficient aggregate demand because wage levels would not adjust downward fast enough to compensate for reduced spending. He believed the government could spend money and increase aggregate demand until idle economic resources, including laborers, were redeployed.

Other schools of thought, notably the Austrian School and real business cycle theorists stress consumption is only possible after production. This means an increase in output drives an increase in consumption, not the other way around. Any attempt to increase spending rather than sustainable production only causes maldistribution of wealth or higher prices, or both.

As a demand-side economist, Keynes further argued that individuals could end up damaging production by limiting current expenditures—by hoarding money, for example. Other economists argue that hoarding can impact prices but does not necessarily change capital accumulation, production, or future output. In other words, the effect of an individual’s saving money—more capital available for business—does not disappear on account of a lack of spending.

The Bottom Line

Aggregate demand is a concept of macroeconomics that represents the total demand within an economy for all kinds of goods and services at a certain price point. In the long term, aggregate demand is indistinguishable from GDP. However, aggregate demand is not a perfect metric and it is the subject of debate among economists.

What Is Asset-Based Lending?

Asset-based lending is the business of loaning money in an agreement that is secured by collateral. An asset-based loan or line of credit may be secured by inventory, accounts receivable, equipment, or other property owned by the borrower.

The asset-based lending industry serves business, not consumers. It is also known as asset-based financing.

How Asset-Based Lending Works

Many businesses need to take out loans or obtain lines of credit to meet routine cash flow demands. For example, a business might obtain a line of credit to make sure it can cover its payroll expenses even if there’s a brief delay in payments it expects to receive.

If the company seeking the loan cannot show enough cash flow or cash assets to cover a loan, the lender may offer to approve the loan with its physical assets as collateral. For example, a new restaurant might be able to obtain a loan only by using its equipment as collateral.

The terms and conditions of an asset-based loan depend on the type and value of the assets offered as security. Lenders prefer highly liquid collateral such as securities that can readily be converted to cash if the borrower defaults on the payments. Loans using physical assets are considered riskier, so the maximum loan will be considerably less than the book value of the assets. Interest rates charged vary widely, depending on the applicant’s credit history, cash flow, and length of time doing business.

Example

For example, say a company seeks a $200,000 loan to expand its operations. If the company pledges the highly liquid marketable securities on its balance sheet as collateral, the lender may grant a loan equalling 85% of the face value of the securities. If the firm’s securities are valued at $200,000, the lender will be willing to loan $170,000. If the company chooses to pledge less liquid assets, such as real estate or equipment, it may only be offered 50% of its required financing, or $100,000.

In both cases, the discount represents the costs of converting the collateral to cash and its potential loss in market value.

Special Considerations

Small and mid-sized companies that are stable and that have physical assets of value are the most common asset-based borrowers.

However, even large corporations may occasionally seek asset-based loans to cover short-term needs. The cost and long lead time of issuing additional shares or bonds in the capital markets may be too high. The cash demand may be extremely time-sensitive, such as in the case of a major acquisition or an unexpected equipment purchase.

What Is an Annuitant?

An annuitant is an individual who is entitled to collect the regular payments of a pension or an annuity investment. The annuitant may be the contract holder or another person, such as a surviving spouse. Annuities are generally seen as retirement income supplements. They may be tied to an employee pension plan or a life insurance product. The size of the payments is usually determined by the life expectancy of the annuitant as well as the amount invested.

Understanding Annuitants

An annuity is a regular payment of a guaranteed income for life or for some specified number of years. An annuitant may be a retired civil servant who receives a pension plan, or an investor who has paid a sum of money to an insurance company in return for a regular income supplement.

Depending on the specifics of the contract, the owner of an annuity may name one or more annuitants, such as a spouse and an elderly parent, or may arrange a joint annuity. The annuitant can also arrange for the payments to be transferred to a surviving spouse if the need arises. In any case, the annuitant must be a person, not a company, or a trust.

The amount of the payments to an annuitant is based on the individual’s age and life expectancy, and the age and life expectancy of any beneficiaries. For example, if the annuitant is 65 years old, but the annuity is transferrable to his 60-year-old wife if she survives him, the insurance company will calculate that it will make monthly payments for about 24 years, which is the life expectancy of a 60-year-old woman.

In yet another variation, an annuity can be for a term of “life-plus”—that is, the payments will continue for the annuitant’s lifetime and then be transferred to a surviving spouse for a specified period of time.

Types of Annuities

There are many variations of annuity, but they can be boiled down to two basic types:

1. A deferred annuity is often used as a retirement savings vehicle. The annuitant invests money regularly over time in return for a stream of annuity payments at some point in the future. Many company pension plans are structured this way.
2. An immediate annuity is just what it sounds like. The annuitant pays a lump sum of money in return for a series of payments that begin immediately and are paid for life or for a specific period of time. The latter option is called a life plus period certain annuity.

Taxes on Annuitants

Annuities are generally taxed as ordinary income. The portion of the annuity payments that represents the contract holder’s basis is not taxed, only the gain portion. In the case of an employer pension, the entire payment is generally taxed as ordinary income.