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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title On the determinants of household debt maturity choice
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Thorsten Hens
  • Wolfgang Breuer
  • Mei Wang
  • Astrid J Salzmann
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Applied Economics
Publisher Taylor & Francis
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0003-6846
Volume 47
Number 5
Page Range 449 - 465
Date 2015
Abstract Text This article jointly analyses a behavioural and a cultural concept to explain household debt portfolio choice. The behavioural approach explores the role of time preferences on household debt maturity in a theoretical model and a numerical analysis. We derive a positive relationship between the long-term discount factor δ and the optimal maturity of household loans. The cultural approach examines whether national culture is a reasonable predictor for household debt maturity. We show that culture is an important factor for households’ borrowing decisions and has even more predictive power than time preferences. Countries with higher scores on the Hofstede dimension of long-term orientation tend to have shorter household debt maturity. Time preferences incur a primarily mediating role, because the effect of national culture on the borrowing decision is reduced, as the long-term discount factor δ increases.
Related URLs
Digital Object Identifier 10.1080/00036846.2014.972547
Other Identification Number merlin-id:10312
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