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Household repayment behavior: The role of social capital and institutional, political, and religious beliefs

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  • Georgarakos, Dimitris
  • Fürth, Sven

Abstract

We examine the influence of social capital and various prevailing beliefs on household repayment behavior in Europe, after accounting for household-specific characteristics and country differences in institutions. Arrears are more common among households living in regions with dense corruption beliefs, low confidence in institutions and authorities, and a low fraction of religious people. Moreover, high stocks of social capital reduce the likelihood of arrears, net of the influence of various potentially relevant factors. Households in these communities face a higher hazard of losing standing in the group and access to the positive externalities of social capital.

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  • Georgarakos, Dimitris & Fürth, Sven, 2015. "Household repayment behavior: The role of social capital and institutional, political, and religious beliefs," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 249-265.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:37:y:2015:i:c:p:249-265
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2014.10.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc, 2010. "Inherited Trust and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2060-2092, December.
    2. Banerjee, Ritwik, 2018. "On the interpretation of World Values Survey trust question - Global expectations vs. local beliefs," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 491-510.
    3. Dirk Bursian & Sven Fürth, 2015. "Trust Me! I am a European Central Banker," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(8), pages 1503-1530, December.
    4. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/432sbils8u9t7qa99cii5psht1 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/432sbils8u9t7qa99cii5psht1 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/8812 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Yann Algan & Pierre Cahuc, 2010. "Inherited Trust and Growth," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2060-2092, December.
    8. Kiesel, Konstantin & Noth, Felix, 2016. "When Debt spells Sin: Does Religiosity guard against Over-Indebtedness?," Annual Conference 2016 (Augsburg): Demographic Change 145774, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    9. Dang, Le Phuong Xuan & Hoang, Viet-Ngu & Nghiem, Son Hong & Wilson, Clevo, 2023. "Social networks with organisational resource, generalised trust and informal loans: Evidence from rural Vietnam," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 388-402.
    10. Goeschl, Timo & Jarke, Johannes, 2014. "Trust, but verify? When trustworthiness is observable only through (costly) monitoring," WiSo-HH Working Paper Series 20, University of Hamburg, Faculty of Business, Economics and Social Sciences, WISO Research Laboratory.
    11. Jalan, Akanksha & Matkovskyy, Roman & Urquhart, Andrew & Yarovaya, Larisa, 2023. "The role of interpersonal trust in cryptocurrency adoption," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    12. Lenarčič, Črt, 2022. "Drivers of household arrears: an euro area country panel data analysis," MPRA Paper 114558, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/8812 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Le Phuong Xuan Dang & Viet-Ngu Hoang & Son Hong Nghiem & Clevo Wilson, 2023. "Social capital and informal credit access: empirical evidence from a Vietnamese household panel survey," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(1), pages 311-340, July.
    15. David ARISTEI & Manuela Gallo, 2012. "The Drivers of Household Over-Indebtedness and Delinquency on Mortgage Loans: Evidence from Italian Microdata," Quaderni del Dipartimento di Economia, Finanza e Statistica 105/2012, Università di Perugia, Dipartimento Economia.
    16. Adrià Pons & Eduard Cristobal-Fransi & Carla Vintrò & Josep Rius & Oriol Querol & Jordi Vilaplana, 2023. "An Application of the IFM Method for the Risk Assessment of Financial Instruments," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 61(1), pages 295-315, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household arrears; Social capital; Trust; Corruption; Beliefs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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