IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/snb/snbwpa/2008-19.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Borrowing in Foreign Currency: Austrian Households as Carry Traders

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Beer
  • Steven Ongena
  • Dr. Marcel Peter

Abstract

Household borrowing in a foreign currency is a widespread phenomenon in Austria. Twelve percent of Austrian households report their housing loan to be denominated in either Swiss franc or Japanese yen for example. Yet, despite its importance, peculiar character, and immediate policy concerns, we know too little about the attitudes and characteristics of the households involved in this type of carry trade. We analyze a uniquely detailed financial wealth survey of 2,556 Austrian households to sketch a comprehensive profile of the attitudes and characteristics of the households involved. We employ both univariate tests and multivariate multinomial logit models. The survey data suggests that risk-loving, wealthy, and married households are more likely to take a housing loan in a foreign currency. High-income households are more likely to take a housing loan in general. These findings may partially assuage policy concerns about household default risk on foreign-currency housing loans.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Beer & Steven Ongena & Dr. Marcel Peter, 2008. "Borrowing in Foreign Currency: Austrian Households as Carry Traders," Working Papers 2008-19, Swiss National Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:snb:snbwpa:2008-19
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.snb.ch/en/publications/research/working-papers/2008/working_paper_2008_19
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cardak, Buly A. & Wilkins, Roger, 2009. "The determinants of household risky asset holdings: Australian evidence on background risk and other factors," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 850-860, May.
    2. John Y. Campbell & João F. Cocco, 2003. "Household Risk Management and Optimal Mortgage Choice," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 118(4), pages 1449-1494.
    3. Carmen M. Reinhart & Kenneth S. Rogoff, 2004. "The Modern History of Exchange Rate Arrangements: A Reinterpretation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 1-48.
    4. John Y. Campbell, 2006. "Household Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1553-1604, August.
    5. Lusardi, Annamaria & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2007. "Baby Boomer retirement security: The roles of planning, financial literacy, and housing wealth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 205-224, January.
    6. Monica Paiella & Alberto Franco Pozzolo, 2007. "Choosing between Fixed- and Adjustable-Rate Mortgages," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Sumit Agarwal & Brent W. Ambrose (ed.), Household Credit Usage, chapter 0, pages 219-236, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Aggarwal, Raj & Goodell, John W., 2009. "Markets and institutions in financial intermediation: National characteristics as determinants," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1770-1780, October.
    8. Ongena, Steven & Brown, Martin & Yeşin, Pınar, 2009. "Foreign Currency Borrowing by Small Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 7540, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    9. Giuseppe Bertola & Richard Disney & Charles Grant (ed.), 2006. "The Economics of Consumer Credit," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262026015, December.
    10. International Monetary Fund, 2005. "Austria: Selected Issues," IMF Staff Country Reports 2005/249, International Monetary Fund.
    11. Gábor Pellényi & Péter Bilek, 2009. "Foreign Currency Borrowing: The Case of Hungary," Working Paper / FINESS 5.4, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    12. Matti Keloharju & Mervi Niskanen, 2001. "Why Do Firms Raise Foreign Currency Denominated Debt? Evidence from Finland," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 7(4), pages 481-496, December.
    13. George Allayannis & Gregory W. Brown & Leora F. Klapper, 2003. "Capital Structure and Financial Risk: Evidence from Foreign Debt Use in East Asia," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2667-2710, December.
    14. Christian Beer & Peter Mooslechner & Martin Schürz & Karin Wagner, 2006. "Austrian Households’ Financial Wealth: An Analysis Based on Microeconomic Data," Monetary Policy & the Economy, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 2, pages 94-110.
    15. Attila Csajbók & András Hudecz & Bálint Tamási, 2010. "Foreign currency borrowing of households in new EU member states," MNB Occasional Papers 2010/87, Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Central Bank of Hungary).
    16. Tamás Bartus, 2005. "Estimation of marginal effects using margeff," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 5(3), pages 309-329, September.
    17. Gabriele Galati & Alexandra Heath & Patrick McGuire, 2007. "Evidence of carry trade activity," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, September.
    18. Ephraim Clark & Amrit Judge, 2008. "The Determinants of Foreign Currency Hedging: Does Foreign Currency Debt Induce a Bias?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 14(3), pages 445-469, June.
    19. Luca, Alina & Petrova, Iva, 2008. "What drives credit dollarization in transition economies?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(5), pages 858-869, May.
    20. repec:diw:diwfin:diwfin05040 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin Brown & Steven Ongena & Pinar Yeşin, 2014. "Information Asymmetry and Foreign Currency Borrowing by Small Firms," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 56(1), pages 110-131, March.
    2. Guiso, Luigi & Sodini, Paolo, 2013. "Household Finance: An Emerging Field," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1397-1532, Elsevier.
    3. Brown, Martin & Ongena, Steven & Yesin, Pinar, 2011. "Foreign currency borrowing by small firms in the transition economies," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 285-302, July.
    4. Ongena, Steven & Brown, Martin & Yeşin, Pınar, 2009. "Foreign Currency Borrowing by Small Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 7540, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Brown, M. & Kirschenmann, K. & Ongena, S., 2009. "Foreign Currency Loans - Demand or Supply Driven?," Other publications TiSEM 75ee4df5-492e-4e1f-8dc4-3, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    6. Sung C. Bae & Hyeon Sook Kim & Taek Ho Kwon, 2020. "Foreign currency borrowing surrounding the global financial crisis: Evidence from Korea," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5-6), pages 786-817, May.
    7. Brown, M. & Ongena, S. & Yesin, P., 2008. "Currency Denomination of Bank Loans : Evidence from Small Firms in Transition Countries," Other publications TiSEM c01ada6e-5c4b-48eb-8743-6, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    8. Aiba, Daiju & Odajima, Ken & Khou, Vouthy, 2017. "Foreign Currency Borrowing and Risk-Hedging Behavior: Evidence from a Household Survey in Cambodia," Working Papers 143, JICA Research Institute.
    9. Niepmann, Friederike & Schmidt-Eisenlohr, Tim, 2022. "Foreign currency loans and credit risk: Evidence from U.S. banks," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    10. Johan Almenberg & Artashes Karapetyan, 2009. "Mental accounting in the housing market," IEW - Working Papers 453, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    11. Hermansson, Cecilia, 2016. "Relationships between bank customers’ risk attitudes and their balance sheets," Working Paper Series 15/12, Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Real Estate and Construction Management & Banking and Finance.
    12. Beckmann, Elisabeth & Stix, Helmut, 2015. "Foreign currency borrowing and knowledge about exchange rate risk," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1-16.
    13. Dzsamila Vonnak, 2015. "Decomposing the Riskiness of Corporate Foreign Currency Lending: the Case of Hungary," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 1528, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    14. Gatopoulos, Georgios & Loubergé, Henri, 2013. "Combined use of foreign debt and currency derivatives under the threat of currency crises: The case of Latin American firms," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 54-75.
    15. Marcelin, Isaac & Mathur, Ike, 2016. "Financial sector development and dollarization in emerging economies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 20-32.
    16. Nicholas Apergis & Christos Bouras, 2023. "Household choices on investing in financial risky assets: Do national institutional factors have their own merit?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(1), pages 405-420, January.
    17. Mariya Hake & Fernando Lopez-Vicente & Luis Molina, 2014. "Do the Drivers of Loan Dollarization Differ between CESEE and Latin America? A Meta-Analysis," Focus on European Economic Integration, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 1, pages 8-35.
    18. Elisabeth Beckmann, 2017. "How does foreign currency debt relief affect households’ loan demand? Evidence from the OeNB Euro Survey in CESEE," Focus on European Economic Integration, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 1, pages 8-32.
    19. Shijaku, Gerti, 2016. "Foreign currency lending in Albania," MPRA Paper 79087, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Elisabeth Beckmann & Anita Roitner & Helmut Stix, 2015. "A Local or a Foreign Currency Loan? Evidence on the Role of Loan Characteristics, Preferences of Households and the Effect of Foreign Banks," Focus on European Economic Integration, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 1, pages 24-48.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    oreign currency borrowing; mortgages; banking sector; Austria; Swissfrancs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • F34 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Lending and Debt Problems
    • F37 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Finance Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:snb:snbwpa:2008-19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Enzo Rossi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/snbgvch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.