Based on a survey of 45 moneylenders carried out in the Dakar and Saint-Louis regions in 1989.

Shows what constitutes overindebtedness, how it occurs and which category of households is frequently affected. Identifies different possible strategies to tackle overindebtedness.

Using a survey of 300 workers conducted in May 2006, assesses levels of overindebtedness in the sample population and determines if there are any socio-economic characteristics or financial use behaviours associated with people who are overindebted.

We use a new panel dataset of credit card accounts to analyze how consumer responded to the 2001 Federal income tax rebates. We estimate the monthly response of credit card payments, spending, and debt, exploiting the unique, randomized timing of the rebate disbursement. We find that, on...

We use data from several waves of the Survey of Consumer Finances to document credit and debit card ownership and use across US demographic groups. We then present recent theoretical and empirical contributions to the study of credit and debit card behavior. Utilization rates of credit lines and...

In their pioneering work, Musto and Souleles (Journal of Monetary Economics 53(1):59–84, <CitationRef CitationID="CR19">2006</CitationRef>) apply portfolio theory to consumer lending. This paper extends their work by analyzing three county-level credit outcome betas. We use the probability of default calibrated from the credit score, the...</citationref>

Many EU countries introduced debt adjustment systems as a response to the growth of over-indebtedness since the 1980s. These systems, originally introduced in many countries as crisis measures, have now become normalized, metamorphosing through a continuing learning process into a combination of...

The lack of access to financial services and to credit in particular is an issue in many developing countries. This paper studies the channels through which new borrowers get access to consumer loans and the effect of repayment data distribution both on that access and on subsequent bank...

Until the eruption of the 2007-2008 international crisis, the decade was characterized by a high growth of credit –especially credit lines for consumption– and of GDP in a large part of the developed and developing worlds. By the end of the period, the process coincided with increasing...

Understanding the factors that influence arrears is crucial if policy makers wish to alleviate the problems caused by debt. But conventional estimates of repayment behaviour impose implausible assumptions about lender behaviour. However, an upper and lower bound for the effect of the...