The Determinants of Household Debt Default

Abstract

In this paper, we study household debt default behavior in Chile using survey data. Previous research in this area suggests financial and personal variables help estimate individual and group probabilities of default. We study mortgage and consumer default separately, as the default decisions and overall borrower behavior are different for each type of debt. Our study finds that income and income-related variables are the only significant and robust variables that explain default for both types of debt. Demographic or personal variables are affected by only one type of debt but not more. For example, the level of education is a factor that affects mortgage default, whereas the determinants of consumer debt default include the age of the household head, and the number of people within the household that contribute to the total family income. We find that the probability of default decreases as the family income increases, and that our estimations are consistent with other studies similar to ours.