IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/bis/biswps/1258.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How accurately do consumers report their debts in household surveys?

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos Madeira

Abstract

This article advances upon previous studies by using a unique match of a representative sample of individual borrowers from the Chilean Household Finance Survey and their banking loan records. I show that surveys differ from the credit registry, not just in the number of loans reported, but also in their amount, with a substantial degree of heterogeneity. Delinquency status is accurately reported by survey respondents. Furthermore, a substantial fraction of the discrepancies can be explained by rounding error in survey answers. Finally, I find that discrepancies are larger when respondents are not the highest-income member of the family.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos Madeira, 2025. "How accurately do consumers report their debts in household surveys?," BIS Working Papers 1258, Bank for International Settlements.
    • Handle: RePEc:bis:biswps:1258
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bis.org/publ/work1258.pdf
    File Function: Full PDF document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.bis.org/publ/work1258.htm
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anmol Bhandari & Serdar Birinci & Ellen R. McGrattan & Kurt See, 2020. "What Do Survey Data Tell Us about US Businesses?," American Economic Review: Insights, American Economic Association, vol. 2(4), pages 443-458, December.
    2. Christelis, Dimitris & Georgarakos, Dimitris & Haliassos, Michael, 2011. "Stockholding: Participation, location, and spillovers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 1918-1930, August.
    3. Stefanie Stantcheva, 2023. "How to Run Surveys: A Guide to Creating Your Own Identifying Variation and Revealing the Invisible," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 15(1), pages 205-234, September.
    4. Meta Brown & Andrew F. Haughwout & Donghoon Lee & Wilbert Van der Klaauw, 2015. "Do we know what we owe? Consumer debt as reported by borrowers and lenders," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, issue 21-1, pages 19-44.
    5. David M. Kaplan, 2019. "distcomp: Comparing distributions," Stata Journal, StataCorp LLC, vol. 19(4), pages 832-848, December.
    6. Olympia Bover & Jose Maria Casado & Sonia Costa & Philip Du Caju & Yvonne McCarthy & Eva Sierminska & Panagiota Tzamourani & Ernesto Villanueva & Tibor Zavadil, 2016. "The Distribution of Debt across Euro-Area Countries: The Role of Individual Characteristics, Institutions, and Credit Conditions," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 12(2), pages 71-128, June.
    7. Maryse Fesseau & Florence Wolff & Maria Liviana Mattonetti, 2013. "A Cross-country Comparison of Household Income, Consumption and Wealth between Micro Sources and National Accounts Aggregates," OECD Statistics Working Papers 2013/3, OECD Publishing.
    8. Dimitris Georgarakos & Michael Haliassos & Giacomo Pasini, 2014. "Household Debt and Social Interactions," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 27(5), pages 1404-1433.
    9. Erik Hurst & Geng Li & Benjamin Pugsley, 2014. "Are Household Surveys Like Tax Forms? Evidence from Income Underreporting of the Self-Employed," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(1), pages 19-33, March.
    10. Andrew Caplin, 2025. "Data Engineering for Cognitive Economics," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 63(1), pages 164-196, March.
    11. Goldman, Matt & Kaplan, David M., 2018. "Comparing distributions by multiple testing across quantiles or CDF values," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 206(1), pages 143-166.
    12. Robert B. Avery & Gregory E. Elliehausen & Arthur B. Kennickell, 1988. "Measuring Wealth With Survey Data: An Evaluation Of The 1983 Survey Of Consumer Finances," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 34(4), pages 339-369, December.
    13. Carlos Madeira, 2018. "Testing the rationality of expectations of qualitative outcomes," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(6), pages 837-852, September.
    14. Goldman, Matt & Kaplan, David M., 2018. "Comparing distributions by multiple testing across quantiles or CDF values," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 206(1), pages 143-166.
    15. Erwin R. Tiongson & Naotaka Sugawara & Victor Sulla & Ashley Taylor & Anna I. Gueorguieva & Victoria Levin & Kalanidhi Subbarao, 2010. "The Crisis Hits Home : Stress-Testing Households in Europe and Central Asia," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2396.
    16. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    17. Madeira, Carlos, 2019. "The impact of interest rate ceilings on households’ credit access: Evidence from a 2013 Chilean legislation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 166-179.
    18. David B. Gross & Nicholas S. Souleles, 2002. "Do Liquidity Constraints and Interest Rates Matter for Consumer Behavior? Evidence from Credit Card Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 117(1), pages 149-185.
    19. Susanne M. Schennach, 2016. "Recent Advances in the Measurement Error Literature," Annual Review of Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 8(1), pages 341-377, October.
    20. Carol C. Bertaut & Michael Haliassos & Michael Reiter, 2009. "Credit Card Debt Puzzles and Debt Revolvers for Self Control," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 13(4), pages 657-692.
    21. Giustinelli, Pamela & Manski, Charles F. & Molinari, Francesca, 2022. "Tail and center rounding of probabilistic expectations in the Health and Retirement Study," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 231(1), pages 265-281.
    22. repec:bla:revinw:v:34:y:1988:i:4:p:339-69 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Calem, Paul S. & Gordy, Michael B. & Mester, Loretta J., 2006. "Switching costs and adverse selection in the market for credit cards: New evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 1653-1685, June.
    24. Jaanika Meriküll & Tairi Rõõm, 2020. "Stress Tests of the Household Sector Using Microdata from Survey and Administrative Sources," International Journal of Central Banking, International Journal of Central Banking, vol. 16(2), pages 203-248, March.
    25. Carlos Madeira, 2024. "Indebtedness and labor risk sorting across consumer lender types: evidence from Chile," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 1004, Central Bank of Chile.
    26. Sugawara, Naotaka & Sulla, Victor & Taylor, Ashley & Tiongson, Erwin R., 2010. "The Crisis Hits Home: Stress-Testing Households in Europe and Central Asia," World Bank - Economic Premise, The World Bank, issue 12, pages 1-4, May.
    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. Madeira, Carlos & Margaretic, Paula, 2022. "The impact of financial literacy on the quality of self-reported financial information," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    2. Madeira, Carlos, 2021. "The potential impact of financial portability measures on mortgage refinancing: Evidence from Chile," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    3. Carlos Madeira, 2022. "The double impact of deep social unrest and a pandemic: Evidence from Chile," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 55(S1), pages 135-171, February.
    4. Meta Brown & Andrew F. Haughwout & Donghoon Lee & Wilbert Van der Klaauw, 2011. "Do we know what we owe? A comparison of borrower- and lender-reported consumer debt," Staff Reports 523, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    5. Guin, Benjamin, 2017. "Culture and household saving," Working Paper Series 2069, European Central Bank.
    6. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    7. Heyman, Fredrik & Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Persson, Lars, 2017. "Talent, Career Choice and Competition: The Gender Wage Gap at the Top," Working Paper Series 1169, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 06 Mar 2023.
    8. Sarah Brown & Pulak Ghosh & Karl Taylor, 2016. "Household Finances and Social Interaction: Bayesian Analysis of Household Panel Data," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62(3), pages 467-488, September.
    9. David M. Kaplan, 2024. "Inference on Consensus Ranking of Distributions," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(3), pages 839-850, July.
    10. Giuseppe Pulina, 2023. "Consumer debt in Luxembourg and the euro area: Evidence from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey," BCL working papers 175, Central Bank of Luxembourg.
    11. Emanuele Millemaci & Fabio Monteforte & Jonathan R. W. Temple, 2025. "Have Autocrats Governed for the Long Term?," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 78(2), pages 440-465, May.
    12. Michael Hanemann & Jon Krosnick & Lisanne Wichgers & Jeffrey Wooldridge & Stephanie Lampron & Daniel Schneider & Eric M. Shaeffer & Trevor Tompson & Penny Visser, 2025. "Ben Franklin’s Whistle, Cost Expectations, and the Choice of Valuation Format," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 88(5), pages 1375-1406, May.
    13. S. S. Swathysree & Manisha Chakrabarty & Debopriti Bhattacharya, 2023. "Getting Real in the Real Consumption Expenditure: A Case of Rural India," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 21(4), pages 817-846, December.
    14. Sof'a Gallardo & Carlos Madeira, 2022. "The role of financial surveys for economic research and policy making in emerging markets," Chapters, in: Duc K. Nguyen (ed.), Handbook of Banking and Finance in Emerging Markets, chapter 36, pages 676-686, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    15. Scholnick, Barry & Massoud, Nadia & Saunders, Anthony & Carbo-Valverde, Santiago & Rodríguez-Fernández, Francisco, 2008. "The economics of credit cards, debit cards and ATMs: A survey and some new evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(8), pages 1468-1483, August.
    16. Mullahy, John, 2024. "Analyzing health outcomes measured as bounded counts," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    17. Raquel Fonseca & Simon Lord, 2015. "Les déterminants du travail autonome au Québec et au Canada (1993-201," Cahiers de recherche 1517, Chaire de recherche Industrielle Alliance sur les enjeux économiques des changements démographiques.
    18. Emilio Fernandez-Corugedo & John Muellbauer, 2006. "Consumer credit conditions in the United Kingdom," Bank of England working papers 314, Bank of England.
    19. Hao Dong & Daniel L. Millimet, 2020. "Propensity Score Weighting with Mismeasured Covariates: An Application to Two Financial Literacy Interventions," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-24, November.
    20. Scott L. Fulford & Scott Schuh, 2023. "Revolving versus Convenience Use of Credit Cards: Evidence from U.S. Credit Bureau Data," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(7), pages 1667-1701, October.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C81 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Methodology for Collecting, Estimating, and Organizing Microeconomic Data; Data Access
    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

    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:bis:biswps:1258. 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: Martin Fessler (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/bisssch.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.