The Effect of Borrowing Constraints on Consumer Liabilities
利用1983年消费者金融调查数据，估计无约束家庭的理想借贷水平，发现流动性约束家庭的预测债务比实际高出75%，消除约束将使总负债增加9%。
This paper explores the effects of liquidity constraints on consumer liabilities. While much empirical evidence attests to the importance of liquidity constraints in the U.S. economy, evidence about the effects of borrowing constraints on consumer balance sheets is scarce. Using the 1983 Survey of Consumer Finances data we estimate desired borrowing for unconstrained households. We then evaluate the gap between predicted.and observed debt for the sample of liquidity constrained consumers. Predicted debt is 75 percent higher than actual debt in the liquidity constrained sample. Thus, the effect of removing borrowing constraints has quantitatively important implications for the allocation of debt in the household portfolio. The removal of borrowing constraints would raise aggregate household liabilities by 9 percent. Copyright 1993 by Ohio State University Press.