IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/boe/boeewp/0554.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Household debt and spending in the United Kingdom

Author

Listed:
  • Bunn, Philip

    (Bank of England)

  • Rostom, May

    (Bank of England)

Abstract

Household debt rose sharply in the United Kingdom in the decade before the financial crisis. This paper uses household level microdata to investigate the relationship between mortgage debt and consumption. We find evidence that more highly indebted groups of households made larger cuts in spending following the financial crisis: spending cuts associated with debt may have reduced the level of aggregate private consumption by up to 2% after 2007. Survey data suggest that large cuts in spending by indebted households after 2007 may reflect a combination of tighter credit conditions and increased concerns about ability to make future debt repayments. The potential for household indebtedness to lead to large adverse impacts on aggregate demand was an important reason why the Bank of England’s Financial Policy Committee took policy action at its June 2014 meeting.

Suggested Citation

  • Bunn, Philip & Rostom, May, 2015. "Household debt and spending in the United Kingdom," Bank of England working papers 554, Bank of England.
    • Handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0554
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/-/media/boe/files/working-paper/2015/household-debt-and-spending-in-the-uk.pdf?la=en&hash=BF951A2950B352C990518B57DFE4C3C6CBDB3741
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Orazio P. Attanasio & James Banks & Sarah Tanner, 2002. "Asset Holding and Consumption Volatility," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(4), pages 771-792, August.
    2. Matteo Iacoviello, 2005. "House Prices, Borrowing Constraints, and Monetary Policy in the Business Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 739-764, June.
    3. Veronica Guerrieri & Guido Lorenzoni, 2017. "Credit Crises, Precautionary Savings, and the Liquidity Trap," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 132(3), pages 1427-1467.
    4. Emmanuel Farhi & Iván Werning, 2016. "A Theory of Macroprudential Policies in the Presence of Nominal Rigidities," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 1645-1704, September.
    5. Nielsen, Mette & Pezzini, Silvia & Reinold, Kate & Williams, Richard, 2010. "The financial position of British households: evidence from the 2010 NMG Consulting survey," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 50(4), pages 333-345.
    6. Campbell, John Y. & Cocco, Joao F., 2007. "How do house prices affect consumption? Evidence from micro data," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 591-621, April.
    7. Orazio P. Attanasio & Laura Blow & Robert Hamilton & Andrew Leicester, 2009. "Booms and Busts: Consumption, House Prices and Expectations," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 76(301), pages 20-50, February.
    8. Stephen Cecchetti & Madhusudan Mohanty & Fabrizio Zampolli, 2011. "The real effects of debt," BIS Working Papers 352, Bank for International Settlements.
    9. King, Mervyn, 1994. "Debt deflation: Theory and evidence," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(3-4), pages 419-445, April.
    10. Òscar Jordà & Moritz Schularick & Alan M. Taylor, 2013. "When Credit Bites Back," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(s2), pages 3-28, December.
    11. Atif Mian & Kamalesh Rao & Amir Sufi, 2013. "Household Balance Sheets, Consumption, and the Economic Slump," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(4), pages 1687-1726.
    12. Bunn, Philip & Rostom, May & Domit, Silvia & Worrow, Nicola & Piscitelli, Laura, 2013. "The financial position of British households: evidence from the 2013 NMG Consulting survey," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 53(4), pages 351-360.
    13. James S. Cloyne & Paolo Surico, 2017. "Household Debt and the Dynamic Effects of Income Tax Changes," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 84(1), pages 45-81.
    14. Garry Barrett & Peter Levell & Kevin Milligan, 2014. "A Comparison of Micro and Macro Expenditure Measures across Countries Using Differing Survey Methods," NBER Chapters, in: Improving the Measurement of Consumer Expenditures, pages 263-286, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Bunn, Philip & Rostom, May, 2014. "Household debt and spending," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 54(3), pages 304-315.
    16. Gauti B. Eggertsson & Paul Krugman, 2012. "Debt, Deleveraging, and the Liquidity Trap: A Fisher-Minsky-Koo Approach," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(3), pages 1469-1513.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Atif Mian & Amir Sufi, 2018. "Finance and Business Cycles: The Credit-Driven Household Demand Channel," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 32(3), pages 31-58, Summer.
    2. Philippe Bracke & Silvana Tenreyro, 2021. "History Dependence in the Housing Market," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 420-443, April.
    3. Rutger Teulings & Bram Wouterse & Kan Ji, 2019. "Disentangling the effect of household debt on consumption," CPB Discussion Paper 395.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    4. David Aikman & Jonathan Bridges & Anil Kashyap & Caspar Siegert, 2019. "Would Macroprudential Regulation Have Prevented the Last Crisis?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(1), pages 107-130, Winter.
    5. Cumming, Fergus, 2018. "Mortgages, cash-flow shocks and local employment," Bank of England working papers 773, Bank of England.
    6. Philip Du Caju & Guillaume Périlleux & François Rycx & Ilan Tojerow, 2021. "A Bigger House at the Cost of an Empty Fridge? The Effect of Households' Indebtedness on Their Consumption: Micro-Evidence Using Belgian HFCS Data," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2021008, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    7. John Simon & Tahlee Stone, 2017. "The Property Ladder after the Financial Crisis: The First Step is a Stretch but Those Who Make It Are Doing OK," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2017-05, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    8. Aikman, David & Haldane, Andrew & Hinterschweiger, Marc & Kapadia, Sujit, 2018. "Rethinking financial stability," Bank of England working papers 712, Bank of England.
    9. Philip Caju & Guillaume Périlleux & François Rycx & Ilan Tojerow, 2023. "A bigger house at the cost of an empty stomach? The effect of households’ indebtedness on their consumption: micro-evidence using Belgian HFCS data," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 291-333, March.
    10. Rutger Teulings & Bram Wouterse & Kan Ji, 2019. "Disentangling the effect of household debt on consumption," CPB Discussion Paper 395, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    11. Voinea, L. & Lovin, H. & Cojocaru, A., 2018. "The impact of inequality on the transmission of monetary policy," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 236-250.
    12. Albuquerque, Bruno & Varadi, Alexandra, 2022. "Consumption effects of mortgage payment," Bank of England working papers 963, Bank of England.
    13. Fiona Price & Benjamin Beckers & Gianni La Cava, 2019. "The Effect of Mortgage Debt on Consumer Spending: Evidence from Household-level Data," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2019-06, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    14. Anna Zabai, 2017. "Household debt: recent developments and challenges," BIS Quarterly Review, Bank for International Settlements, December.
    15. Bridges, Jonathan & Jackson, Christopher & McGregor, Daisy, 2017. "Down in the slumps: the role of credit in five decades of recessions," Bank of England working papers 659, Bank of England.
    16. Abd Samad, Khairunnisa & Mohd Daud, Siti Nurazira & Mohd Dali, Nuradli Ridzwan Shah, 2020. "Early Warning Indicators for Systemic Banking Crises: Household Debt and Property Prices," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 54(1), pages 121-134.
    17. Varadi, Alexandra, 2024. "Identifying the transmission channels of credit supply shocks to household debt: Price and non-price effects," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    18. Mcknight, Abigail, 2019. "Understanding the relationship between poverty, inequality and growth: a review of existing evidence," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103458, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Ellie Benton & Anne Power, 2021. "CASE Annual Report 2020," CASE Reports casereport136, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    20. Abigail McKnight, 2019. "Understanding the relationship between poverty, inequality and growth: a review of existing evidence," CASE Papers /216, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    21. Bank for International Settlements, 2022. "Private sector debt and financial stability," CGFS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 67.
    22. Svensson, Lars E.O., 2020. "Macroprudential Policy and Household Debt: What is Wrong with Swedish Macroprudential Policy?," CEPR Discussion Papers 14585, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Guerrieri, V. & Uhlig, H., 2016. "Housing and Credit Markets," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 1427-1496, Elsevier.
    2. Bunn, Philip & Rostom, May, 2014. "Household debt and spending," Bank of England Quarterly Bulletin, Bank of England, vol. 54(3), pages 304-315.
    3. Adrien Auclert, 2019. "Monetary Policy and the Redistribution Channel," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(6), pages 2333-2367, June.
    4. Le Blanc, Julia & Lydon, Reamonn, 2019. "Indebtedness and spending: What happens when the music stops?," Research Technical Papers 14/RT/19, Central Bank of Ireland.
    5. Kukk, Merike, 2016. "How did household indebtedness hamper consumption during the recession? Evidence from micro data," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 764-786.
    6. Matthew Rognlie & Andrei Shleifer & Alp Simsek, 2018. "Investment Hangover and the Great Recession," American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 10(2), pages 113-153, April.
    7. Philip Du Caju & Guillaume Périlleux & François Rycx & Ilan Tojerow, 2021. "A Bigger House at the Cost of an Empty Fridge? The Effect of Households' Indebtedness on Their Consumption: Micro-Evidence Using Belgian HFCS Data," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2021008, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    8. Batini, Nicoletta & Melina, Giovanni & Villa, Stefania, 2019. "Fiscal buffers, private debt, and recession: The good, the bad and the ugly," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    9. Yun Jung Kim & Jing Zhang, 2021. "The Relationship Between Debt and Output," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 69(1), pages 230-257, March.
    10. Kovacs, Agnes & Rostom, May & Bunn, Philip, 2018. "Consumption response to aggregate shocks and the role of leverage," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 90378, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    11. Drehmann, Mathias & Juselius, Mikael & Korinek, Anton, 2023. "Long-term debt propagation and real reversals," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 5/2023, Bank of Finland.
    12. Guerrieri, Luca & Iacoviello, Matteo, 2017. "Collateral constraints and macroeconomic asymmetries," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 28-49.
    13. Paolo Surico & Clodomiro Ferreira & James Cloyne, 2015. "Housing Debt and the Transmission of Monetary Policy," 2015 Meeting Papers 629, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    14. Cheol Eun & Lingling Wang & Tim Zhang, 2022. "House Price Growth Synchronization and Business Cycle Alignment," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(4), pages 675-710, November.
    15. Mathias Drehmann & Mikael Juselius & Anton Korinek, 2017. "Accounting for debt service: the painful legacy of credit booms," BIS Working Papers 645, Bank for International Settlements.
    16. Mairead Roiste & Apostolos Fasianos & Robert Kirkby & Fang Yao, 2021. "Are Housing Wealth Effects Asymmetric in Booms and Busts?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 62(4), pages 578-628, May.
    17. Mian, A. & Sufi, A., 2016. "Who Bears the Cost of Recessions? The Role of House Prices and Household Debt," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & Harald Uhlig (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 255-296, Elsevier.
    18. Drehmann, Mathias & Juselius, Mikael & Korinek, Anton, 2018. "Going with the flows: New borrowing, debt service and the transmission of credit booms," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 10/2018, Bank of Finland.
    19. Mathias Drehmann & Mikael Juselius & Anton Korinek, 2018. "Going With the Flows: New Borrowing, Debt Service and the Transmission of Credit Booms," NBER Working Papers 24549, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. ÅžimÅŸek, Alp, 2021. "The Macroeconomics of Financial Speculation," CEPR Discussion Papers 15733, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Household spending; debt;

    JEL classification:

    • D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
    • D11 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Theory
    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:boe:boeewp:0554. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Digital Media Team (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/boegvuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.