The Distribution of Debt Across Euro Area Countries: The Role of Individual Characteristics, Institutions and Credit Conditions

Olympia Bover, Philip Du Caju, Ernesto Villanueva, Sónia Costa, Yvonne McCarthy, Jose Casado (), Panagiota Tzamourani, Eva Sierminska and Tibor Zavadil

No 10934, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: The aim of this paper is twofold. First, we present an up-to-date assessment of the differences across euro area countries in the distributions of various measures of debt conditional on household characteristics. We consider three different outcomes: the probability of holding secured debt, the amount of secured debt held and the interest rate paid on the main mortgage. Second, we examine the role of legal and economic institutions in accounting for these differences. We use data from the first wave of a new survey of household finances, the Household Finance and Consumption Survey. Adjusting for household composition, we find substantial cross-country variation in secured debt outcomes and in their distribution across age and income groups. Among all the institutions considered, the length of asset repossession periods best accounts for the differences across countries in the distribution of secured debt. In countries with longer repossession periods, the fraction of people who borrow is smaller, the youngest group of households borrow lower amounts (conditional on borrowing), and the mortgage interest rates paid by low-income households are higher. Regulatory loan-to-value ratios, the taxation of mortgages and the prevalence of fixed-rate mortgages deliver less robust results.

Keywords: Fixed rate mortgages; Household debt and interest rate distributions; Loan-to-value ratios; Taxation; Time to foreclose (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D14 G21 G28 K35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Distribution of Debt across Euro-Area Countries: The Role of Individual Characteristics, Institutions, and Credit Conditions (2016)
Working Paper: The distribution of debt across Euro Area countries: The role of individual characteristics, institutions and credit conditions (2014)
Working Paper: The distribution of debt across euro area countries: the role of individual characteristics, institutions and credit conditions (2014)
Working Paper: The distribution of debt across euro area countries: The role of individual characteristics, institutions and credit conditions (2014)
Working Paper: The distribution of debt across euro area countries: the role of individual characteristics, institutions and credit conditions (2013)
Working Paper: The distribution of debt across euro area countries: The role of individual characteristics, institutions and credit conditions (2013)
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