Attitudes Toward Debt and Debt Behavior
We introduce a novel survey measure of attitude toward debt. Matching our survey results with panel data on Swedish household balance sheets from registry data, we show that our debt attitude measure helps explain individual variation in indebtedness as well as debt build-up and consumption behavior in the period 2004–2007. As an explanatory variable, debt attitude compares well to a number of other determinants of debt, including education, risk-taking, and financial literacy. We also provide evidence that debt attitude is passed down along family lines and has a cultural element.
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Copy CitationJohan Almenberg, Annamaria Lusardi, Jenny Säve-Söderbergh, and Roine Vestman, "Attitudes Toward Debt and Debt Behavior," NBER Working Paper 24935 (2018), https://doi.org/10.3386/w24935.Download Citation
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Published Versions
Johan Almenberg & Annamaria Lusardi & Jenny Säve‐Söderbergh & Roine Vestman, 2021. "Attitudes towards Debt and Debt Behavior*," The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, vol 123(3), pages 780-809. citation courtesy of 
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