The Opportunity Cost of Debt Aversion
通过实验发现三分之一的人因厌恶债务而忽视高回报投资，债务厌恶者平均将1美元债务视为1.03美元储蓄，导致借贷投资意愿降低50%。
We provide evidence of the existence of debt aversion and its negative implications for financial decisions. In a new experimental design where subjects are assigned debt randomly, we quantify the opportunity cost of subjects’ debt-biased decisions. One-third of our participants neglect high returns and focus instead on debt repayments. In addition, borrowing to invest is 50 percent less likely when it leads to indebtedness. On average, participants perceive $1 less in debt as equivalent to $1.03 in savings. Hence, a debt-averse agent will undertake a 10 percent guaranteed investment only if the cost of borrowing does not exceed 6.80 percent.