IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rba/rbardp/rdp2015-01.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Stress Testing the Australian Household Sector Using the HILDA Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Tom Bilston

    (Reserve Bank of Australia)

  • Robert Johnson

    (Reserve Bank of Australia)

  • Matthew Read

    (Reserve Bank of Australia)

Abstract

In Australia, the banking sector's substantial exposure to the household sector gives reason to continuously assess the financial resilience of households. In this paper, we further explore the simulation-based household stress-testing model presented in Bilston and Rodgers (2013). This model uses data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey to quantify the household sector's financial resilience to macroeconomic shocks. The model suggests that through the 2000s the household sector remained resilient to scenarios involving asset price, interest rate and unemployment rate shocks, and the associated increases in household loan losses under these scenarios were limited. Indeed, the results suggest that, despite rising levels of household indebtedness in aggregate, the distribution of household debt has remained concentrated among households that are well placed to service it. In turn, this suggests that aggregate measures of household indebtedness may be misleading indicators of the household sector's financial fragility. The results also highlight the potential for expansionary monetary policy to offset the effects of increases in unemployment and decreases in asset prices on household loan losses.

Suggested Citation

  • Tom Bilston & Robert Johnson & Matthew Read, 2015. "Stress Testing the Australian Household Sector Using the HILDA Survey," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2015-01, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    • Handle: RePEc:rba:rbardp:rdp2015-01
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/rdp/2015/pdf/rdp2015-01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ramdane Djoudad, 2011. "A framework to assess vulnerabilities arising from household indebtedness using microdata," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Proceedings of the IFC Conference on "Initiatives to address data gaps revealed by the financial crisis", Basel, 25-26 August 2010, volume 34, pages 151-168, Bank for International Settlements.
    2. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2007_005 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. Bank for International Settlements, 2005. "Investigating the relationship between the financial and real economy," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 22.
    4. Nicolas Albacete & Pirmin Fessler, 2010. "Stress Testing Austrian Households," Financial Stability Report, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 19, pages 72-91.
    5. Milton Friedman, 1957. "A Theory of the Consumption Function," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number frie57-1.
    6. Marcelo Fuenzalida & Jaime Ruiz-Tagle, 2011. "Household Financial Vulnerability," Central Banking, Analysis, and Economic Policies Book Series, in: Rodrigo Alfaro (ed.),Financial Stability, Monetary Policy, and Central Banking, edition 1, volume 15, chapter 10, pages 299-326, Central Bank of Chile.
    7. Guy Debelle, 2004. "Macroeconomic implications of rising household debt," BIS Working Papers 153, Bank for International Settlements.
    8. Martin W johansson & Mattias Persson, 2007. "Swedish households' indebtedness and ability to pay: a household level study," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Proceedings of the IFC Conference on "Measuring the financial position of the household sector", Basel, 30-31 August 2006 - Volume 2, volume 26, pages 234-248, Bank for International Settlements.
    9. Tom Bilston & David Rodgers, 2013. "A Model for Stress Testing Household Lending in Australia," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 27-38, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Jonathan Kearns & Mike Major & David Norman, 2021. "How Risky Is Australian Household Debt?," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 54(3), pages 313-330, September.
    2. Gan-Ochir Doojav & Ariun-Erdene Bayarjargal, 2017. "Stress testing the household sector in Mongolia," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 24(2), pages 23-52, December.
    3. Nicolas Albacete & Peter Lindner, 2013. "Household Vulnerability in Austria – A Microeconomic Analysis Based on the Household Finance and Consumption Survey," Financial Stability Report, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 25, pages 57-73.
    4. Giordana, Gastón & Ziegelmeyer, Michael, 2020. "Stress testing household balance sheets in Luxembourg," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 115-138.
    5. Liaqat Ali & Muhammad Kamran Naqi Khan & Habib Ahmad, 2020. "Financial Fragility of Pakistani Household," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 41(3), pages 572-590, September.
    6. Tom Bilston & David Rodgers, 2013. "A Model for Stress Testing Household Lending in Australia," RBA Bulletin (Print copy discontinued), Reserve Bank of Australia, pages 27-38, December.
    7. Gianni La Cava & Lydia Wang, 2021. "The Rise in Household Liquidity," RBA Research Discussion Papers rdp2021-10, Reserve Bank of Australia.
    8. Kirsten Abela & Ilias Georgakopoulus, 2022. "A stress testing framework for the Maltese household sector," CBM Working Papers WP/04/2022, Central Bank of Malta.
    9. Marianna Brunetti & Elena Giarda & Costanza Torricelli, 2016. "Is Financial Fragility a Matter of Illiquidity? An Appraisal for Italian Households," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62(4), pages 628-649, December.
    10. Marianna Brunetti & Elena Giarda & Costanza Torricelli, 2016. "Is Financial Fragility a Matter of Illiquidity? An Appraisal for Italian Households," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 62(4), pages 628-649, December.
    11. Nakajima, Jouchi, 2020. "The role of household debt heterogeneity on consumption: Evidence from Japanese household data," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 186-197.
    12. Gaston Giordana & Michael Ziegelmeyer, 2017. "Household debt burden and financial vulnerability in Luxembourg," IFC Bulletins chapters, in: Bank for International Settlements (ed.), Data needs and Statistics compilation for macroprudential analysis, volume 46, Bank for International Settlements.
    13. Markus Christen & Ruskin Morgan, 2005. "Keeping Up With the Joneses: Analyzing the Effect of Income Inequality on Consumer Borrowing," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 145-173, June.
    14. 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.
    15. Jakob Kapeller & Bernhard Schütz, 2015. "Conspicuous Consumption, Inequality and Debt: The Nature of Consumption-driven Profit-led Regimes," Metroeconomica, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(1), pages 51-70, February.
    16. Mikus Arins & Nadezda Sinenko & Laura Laube, 2014. "Survey-Based Assessment of Household Borrowers' Financial Vulnerability," Discussion Papers 2014/01, Latvijas Banka.
    17. Gross, Marco & Población García, Francisco Javier, 2016. "Assessing the efficacy of borrower-based macroprudential policy using an integrated micro-macro model for European households," Working Paper Series 1881, European Central Bank.
    18. Hosung Jung & Hyun Hak Kim, 2020. "Default Probability by Employment Status in South Korea," Asian Economic Papers, MIT Press, vol. 19(3), pages 62-84, Fall.
    19. Hanna Karolina Szymborska, 2022. "Rethinking inequality in the 21st century – inequality and household balance sheet composition in financialized economies," Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(1), pages 24-72, January.
    20. Nicolas Albacete & Judith Eidenberger & Gerald Krenn & Peter Lindner & Michael Sigmund, 2014. "Risk-Bearing Capacity of Households – Linking Micro-Level Data to the Macroprudential Toolkit," Financial Stability Report, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue 27, pages 95-110.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    stress test; household surveys;

    JEL classification:

    • C15 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods and Methodology: General - - - Statistical Simulation Methods: General
    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution

    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:rba:rbardp:rdp2015-01. 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: Paula Drew (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rbagvau.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.