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The Persistence of Financial Distress

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Abstract

Using recently available proprietary panel data, we show that while many (35%) US consumers experience fi nancial distress at some point in the life cycle, most of the events of nancial distress are primarily concentrated in a much smaller proportion of consumers in persistent trouble. Roughly 10% of consumers are distressed for more than a quarter of the life cycle, and less than 10% of borrowers account for half of all distress events. These facts can be largely accounted for in a straightforward extension of a workhorse model of defaultable debt that accommodates a simple form of heterogeneity in time preference but not otherwise.

Suggested Citation

  • Kartik B. Athreya & Jose Mustre-del-Rio & Juan M. Sanchez, 2017. "The Persistence of Financial Distress," Research Working Paper RWP 17-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedkrw:rwp17-15
    DOI: 10.18651/RWP2017-15
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    Cited by:

    1. Amanda Wuth & Magdalena Cismaru, 2021. "A Conceptual and Operational Review of the Negative Financial Health Terminology and Constructs," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 14(4), pages 1-1, April.
    2. Fulford, Scott L. & Schuh, Scott D., 2024. "Credit cards, credit utilization, and consumption," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C).
    3. Kyle Dempsey & Felicia Ionescu, 2021. "Lending Standards and Borrowing Premia in Unsecured Credit Markets," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2021-039, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    4. Kartik B. Athreya & Ryan Mather & Jose Mustre-del-Rio & Juan M. Sanchez, 2019. "Consumption in the Great Recession: The Financial Distress Channel," Research Working Paper RWP 19-6, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    5. French, Declan, 2023. "Exploring household financial strain dynamics," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    6. Mark Aguiar & Mark Bils & Corina Boar, 2020. "Who Are the Hand-to-Mouth?," Working Papers 2020-9, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    7. José Mustre-del-Río & Juan M Sánchez & Ryan Mather & Kartik Athreya, 2025. "The Effects of Macroeconomic Shocks: Household Financial Distress Matters," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 38(2), pages 564-604.
    8. Kartik B. Athreya & Ryan Mather & Jose Mustre-del-Rio & Juan M. Sanchez, 2020. "Household Financial Distress and the Burden of 'Aggregate' Shocks," Working Paper 20-12, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
    9. Roth, Paula, 2020. "Inequality, Relative Deprivation and Financial Distress: Evidence from Swedish Register Data," Working Paper Series 1374, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    10. Balloch, Adnan & Engels, Christian & Philip, Dennis, 2022. "When It Rains It Drains: Psychological Distress and Household Net Worth," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    11. Kyle F. Herkenhoff & Gajendran Raveendranathan, 2019. "Who Bears the Welfare Costs of Monopoly? The Case of the Credit Card Industry," Working Papers 2019-071, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    12. Kyle Dempsey & Felicia Ionescu, 2019. "Lending Standards and Consumption Insurance over the Business Cycle," 2019 Meeting Papers 1428, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    13. Christa Gibbs & Benedict Guttman-Kenney & Donghoon Lee & Scott Nelson & Wilbert van der Klaauw & Jialan Wang, 2025. "Consumer Credit Reporting Data," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 63(2), pages 598-636, June.
    14. David Aristei & Manuela Gallo & Pierluigi Murro, 2025. "Financial Knowledge and Financial Fragility: Longitudinal Evidence from Italy," Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, Springer;Società Italiana degli Economisti (Italian Economic Association), vol. 11(2), pages 667-702, July.
    15. Mark Aguiar & Corina Boar & Mark Bils, 2019. "Who Are the Hand-to-Mouth?," 2019 Meeting Papers 525, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Olga Gorbachev & María José Luengo-Prado, 2019. "The Credit Card Debt Puzzle: The Role of Preferences, Credit Access Risk, and Financial Literacy," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 101(2), pages 294-309, May.

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    JEL classification:

    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy

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