Journal Article

The economics of household leveraging and deleveraging

Abstract: Since the start of the financial crisis of 2007-09, a historically large number of household loans have become delinquent and residential houses have been foreclosed. This situation, coupled with households actively paying down their debt or cutting down on new borrowing, marked the beginning of household deleveraging. In this article, Wenli Li and Susheela Patwari discuss recent theoretical and empirical work by economists that sheds light on the process of leveraging and deleveraging and that helps to provide answers to a number of questions, such as: What determines when and how much a household borrows? What helps account for the widely noted increase in consumer debt levels in the run-up to the financial crisis? Finally, how has deleveraging progressed, and what are the implications for consumption and the broader economy?

Keywords: Mortgage loans; Foreclosure; Households;

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

Part of Series: Business Review

Publication Date: 2012

Issue: Q3

Pages: 9-17