Household Debt: Facts, Puzzles, Theories, and Policies

Jonathan Zinman

No 20496, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Borrowing decisions affect most households, with large stakes and implications for subfields as varied as macroeconomics and industrial organization. I review theoretical and empirical work on household debt: its prevalence, level, growth, and composition, as well as various measures of consumer choice and market (in)efficiency, elasticities, and prices, including new evidence on how borrowing heterogeneity affects the distribution of the opportunity cost of consumption. I also discuss opportunities and challenges in policy evaluation. A key takeaway is that puzzles outstrip stylized facts, and I highlight numerous avenues for further research.

JEL-codes: D03 D14 D18 D83 D91 E21 E32 G01 G02 G11 G21 G23 G28 R31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac and nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Published as Jonathan Zinman, 2015. "Household Debt: Facts, Puzzles, Theories, and Policies," Annual Review of Economics, vol 7(1), pages 251-276.

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Journal Article: Household Debt: Facts, Puzzles, Theories, and Policies (2015)
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