How accurately do consumers report their debts in household surveys?

Carlos Madeira

No 1258, BIS Working Papers from Bank for International Settlements

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.

Keywords: household finance surveys; mortgages; consumer credit; default; measurement error (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C81 D10 D12 E21 G21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-04
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