Household debt rose sharply in the United Kingdom in the decade before the financial crisis. This paper uses household level microdata to investigate the relationship between mortgage debt and consumption. We find evidence that more highly indebted groups of households made larger cuts in...

This article is the first study to use microdata to assess the role of debt levels in determining UK households' spending patterns over the course of the recent recession. There is evidence that high levels of household debt have been associated with deeper downturns and more protracted...