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  4. June 2010
  5. Intertemporal Consumption and Credit Constraints: Does Total Expenditure Respond to an Exogenous Shock to Credit?

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Intertemporal Consumption and Credit Constraints: Does Total Expenditure Respond to an Exogenous Shock to Credit?

  • Søren Leth-Petersen
American Economic Review
vol. 100, no. 3, June 2010
(pp. 1080–1103)
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Abstract

There is continuing controversy over the importance of credit constraints. This paper investigates whether total household expenditure and debt is affected by an exogenous increase in access to credit provided by a credit market reform that enabled Danish house owners to use housing equity as collateral for consumption loans. We find that the magnitude of the response is correlated with the amount of equity released by the reform and that the effect is strongest for younger households. Even for this group, the response was moderate. The aggregate effect of the reform was significant but small. (JEL D14, D91, E21)

Citation

Leth-Petersen, Søren. 2010. "Intertemporal Consumption and Credit Constraints: Does Total Expenditure Respond to an Exogenous Shock to Credit?" American Economic Review, 100 (3): 1080–1103. DOI: 10.1257/aer.100.3.1080

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • D14 Personal Finance
  • D15 Intertemporal Consumer Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
  • E21 Macroeconomics: Consumption; Saving; Wealth