Estimating Credit Constraints among US Households

Households are constrained if they want to borrow, but banks restrict their lending. This paper separately identifies (using appropriate exclusion restrictions) the demand for debt, and the maximum amount agents can borrow when it is unknown which consumers are constrained. Using data from the CEX, it estimates that between 26 percent and 31 percent of households are constrained: and that poorly educated, ethnic minority, low income, men, and (among the educated) older households are less often constrained. On average, households would like to borrow up to $4,000 dollars more. But it does not test whether constraints are never binding