Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Carlos Madeira
Author-X-Name-First: Carlos
Author-X-Name-Last: Madeira
Title: How accurately do consumers report their debts in household surveys?
Abstract: This article advances upon previous studies by using a unique match of a representative sample of individual borrowers from the Chilean Household Finance Survey and their banking loan records. I show that surveys differ from the credit registry, not just in the number of loans reported, but also in their amount, with a substantial degree of heterogeneity. Delinquency status is accurately reported by survey respondents. Furthermore, a substantial fraction of the discrepancies can be explained by rounding error in survey answers. Finally, I find that discrepancies are larger when respondents are not the highest-income member of the family.
Creation-Date: 2025-04
File-URL: https://www.bis.org/publ/work1258.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
File-Function: Full PDF document
File-URL: https://www.bis.org/publ/work1258.htm
File-Format: text/html
Number: 1258
Keywords: household finance surveys, mortgages, consumer credit, default, measurement error
Classification-JEL: C81, D10, D12, E21, G21
Handle: RePEc:bis:biswps:1258