Exploring differences in household debt across the United States and euro area countries

Christelis, D. , Ehrmann, M. and Georgarakos, D. (2021) Exploring differences in household debt across the United States and euro area countries. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 53(2-3), pp. 477-501. (doi: 10.1111/jmcb.12769)

Abstract

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 10 euro area economies. U.S. households have the highest prevalence of mortgage and consumer debt, hold comparatively large amounts and face higher debt burdens despite having higher income. We find that the U.S. economic environment is associated with a higher propensity to hold debt, primarily because a given level of collateral is associated with higher prevalence and larger amounts of mortgage debt in the United States.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Georgarakos, Professor Dimitris and Christelis, Professor Dimitris
• Authors: Christelis, D., Ehrmann, M., and Georgarakos, D.
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > Adam Smith Business School > Economics
• Journal Name: Journal of Money, Credit and Banking
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0022-2879
• ISSN (Online): 1538-4616
• Published Online: 13 February 2021
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2021 The Ohio State University
• First Published: First published in Journal of Money, Credit and Banking 53(2-3): 477-501
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy