Authors
Olivier Coibion
University of Texas at Austin and NBER
Yuriy Gorodnichenko
University of California, Berkeley and NBER
Marianna Kudlyak
Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco
John Mondragon
Northwestern University
Does Greater Inequality Lead to More Household Borrowing? New Evidence from Household Data
Abstract
Using household-level debt data over 2000-2012 and local variation in inequality, we show that low-income households in high-inequality regions (zip-codes, counties, states) accumulated less debt (relative to their income) than low-income households in lower-inequality regions, contrary to the prevailing view. Furthermore, the price of credit is higher and access to credit is harder for low-income households in high-inequality versus low-inequality regions. Lower quantities combined with higher prices suggest that the debt accumulation pattern by household income across areas with different inequality is a result of credit supply rather than credit demand. We propose a lending model to illustrate the mechanism.
