We document the cyclical properties of unsecured consumer credit (procyclical and volatile) and of consumer … access to unsecured credit (because of bankruptcy costs) and aggregate shocks, we show that the cyclical behavior of … household earnings growth accounts for these properties, albeit not for the large volatility of credit. We find that tilting …

Credit limit variability is a crucial aspect of the consumption, savings, and debt decisions of households in the … United States. Using a large panel, this paper first demonstrates that individuals gain and lose access to credit frequently … and often have their credit limits reduced unexpectedly. Credit limit volatility is larger than most estimates of income …

Most US credit card holders revolve high-interest debt, often combined with substantial (i) asset accumulation by …-existence, as well as target credit card utilization rates consistent with Gross and Souleles (2002). The benchmark model is …

future. When demand is sufficiently indebted, the economy gets stuck in a debt-driven liquidity trap, or debt trap. Escaping …We propose a theory of indebted demand, capturing the idea that large debt burdens by households and governments lower … accommodative monetary policy and deficit spending—generate a debt-financed short-run boom at the expense of indebted demand in the …

Most US credit card holders revolve high-interest debt, often with substantial liquid and retirement assets. We model …, after allowing for standard determinants of credit card debt … separation of accounting from shopping allowed by credit cards, in a rational, dynamic game. When the shopper is more impatient …

Using detailed micro data, we document that households often use "stimulus" checks to pay down debt, especially those … otherwise standard incomplete markets model. Because interest rates rise with debt, borrowers have increasingly larger … incentives to use an additional dollar to reduce debt service payments rather than consume. Using our calibrated model, we then …

highlights the importance of liquidity spirals that arise from the interaction of search frictions and endogenous credit … of credit constraints to the depressed housing market. This contraction in credit then deepens the downturn. During booms …