The measurement of household liabilities: conceptual issues and practice

Abstract

Observed differences in the incidence of household debt between countries makes the possibility of differences in household and supplier debt behaviour an intriguing empirical question. A large number of theoretical concepts concerning household debt have been raised including the demand, and supply of debt, credit constraints, search behaviour by households and adverse selection. A comparison of ten national surveys from a range of countries which spans the high incidence though to the low incidence of debt economies shows that due to very great differences in the data collected comparable research between countries is difficult and in many cases impossible. A list of additional variable which could be usefully collected by all of the surveys is suggested.