This book brings together leading international researchers to focus specifically on consumer debt, presenting current empirical and theoretical research crucial to ongoing policy debates on such topics as privacy rules, the regulation of contractual responsibilities, financial stability, and overindebtedness.
Several chapters compare the use of credit markets by households in different countries, while others focus on single country case studies—including consumer credit dynamics in Italy, the role of housing expenditure in the cyclical pattern of borrowing in the United Kingdom, and the use of credit cards by U.S. consumers—to illustrate general insights. Other chapters draw policy lessons from the U.S. experience with bankruptcy regulation and the development of the credit counseling industry. Finally, the book reviews historical, theoretical, and empirical aspects of information sharing, of particular interest in light of the integration of European Union credit markets.
Contents
Preface
1 The Economics of Consumer Credit Demand and Supply
2 Consumer Credit Markets in the United States and Europe
3 Household Debt Demand and Supply: A Cross-Country Comparison
4 Regulation, Formal and Informal Enforcement, and the Development of the Household Loan Market: Lessons from Italy
5 Housing Wealth and the Accumulation of Financial Debt: Evidence from U.K. Households
6 Credit Cards: Facts and Theories
7 Bankruptcy and Consumer Behavior: Theory and U.S. Evidence
8 The Evolution of the Credit Counseling Industry in the United States
9 Development and Regulation of Consumer Credit Reporting in the United States
10 The Role and Effects of Credit Information Sharing
Contributors
Index