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Exploring Differences in Household Debt Across the United States and Euro Area Countries

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Household debt has played a central role in the global financial crisis, yet our understanding of it remains limited. We put U.S. household leverage in an international perspective, using household-level data for the United States and ten euro area economies. U.S. households have the highest prevalence of collateralized and non-collateralized debt, hold comparatively large amounts, and face higher debt-service burdens despite having higher income. We find that the U.S. economic environment is more conducive to holding debt, primarily because a given level of collateral is associated with higher prevalence and larger amounts of collateralized debt in the United States.

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  • Dimitris Christelis & Michael Ehrmann & Dimitris Georgarakos, 2017. "Exploring Differences in Household Debt Across the United States and Euro Area Countries," CSEF Working Papers 465, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    • Handle: RePEc:sef:csefwp:465
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    2. Benyan Tan & Yingzhu Guo & Yan Wu, 2024. "The influence and mechanism of female-headed households on household debt risk: empirical evidence from China," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    3. Steffen Ahrens & Ciril Bosch-Rosa & Thomas Meissner, 2022. "Intertemporal consumption and debt aversion: a replication and extension," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 8(1), pages 56-84, December.
    4. Timo Mitze, 2019. "The migration response to local labour market shocks: Evidence from EU regions during the global economic crisis," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 81(2), pages 271-298, April.
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    6. Georgarakos, Dimitris & Popov, Alexander, 2023. "I (Don't) Owe You: Sovereign Default and Borrowing Behavior," CEPR Discussion Papers 18300, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. 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.
    8. Dal Borgo, Mariela, 2021. "Do bankruptcy protection levels affect households' demand for stocks?," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 564, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    9. Ammann, Manuel & Cochardt, Alexander Elmar & Straumann, Simon & Weigert, Florian, 2022. "Back to the roots: Ancestral origin and mutual fund manager portfolio choice," CFR Working Papers 22-04, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    10. Fleck, Johannes & Monninger, Adrian, 2020. "Culture and portfolios: trust, precautionary savings and home ownership," Working Paper Series 2457, European Central Bank.
    11. Bertrand Garbinti & Pierre Lamarche & Fredérique Savignac, 2024. "Wealth Heterogeneity and the Marginal Propensity to Consume out of Wealth," Working Papers 2022-02, Center for Research in Economics and Statistics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    household debt; debt burden; household finance; counterfactual decompositions.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions

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