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Do Credit Limits and Interest Rates Affect Household Consumption Behavior and Default Patterns?

Wi, Gyeongu1 · Ko, Hyeokjin2 · Park, Yeongseok3 · Min, Gyeongrok4

1 Korea Polytechnic University, 2 Dankook University, 3 Sookmyung Women's University, 4 Sogang University

Published: January 2009 · Vol. 38 No. 6 · pp. 1445-1466
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Abstract

This study analyzes the effects of the changes in credit limits and/or the changes in interest rates on household consumption and default patterns using the data of the Korean credit card users. With the fear of long-lasting stagnation, various economic programs to boost the domestic demand are being designed and implemented these days. In order to achieve the desired policy objectives, those economic programs should be directed towards those who have high marginal propensity to consume(MPC) as many as possible. The previous micro-level studies relating to the marginal propensity to consume focused mainly on the economic effects of an increase in income(either in total or in disposable sense) or of an increase in the values of assets the households own. Unlike those studies, this study analyzes how the changes in credit limits and the changes in interest expenses influence the household consumption activities. For the empirical analysis, we collect the data on the Korean credit card holders. The main objective of this study is to link the marginal propensity to consume of the Korean credit card users to their characteristics. For this purpose, credit card users are categorized into six subgroups (from group 1 to group 6) based on their credit ratings provided by the Korea Credit Bureau. The credit ratings not only reflect card usage patterns of the credit card users but also reflect their income, profession, assets and debts. In this paper, the group 1 represents those who are in the highest credit ratings while the group 6 represents those who are in the lowest credit ratings. We investigate which groups are affected the most in terms of their consumption behavior by the changes in credit limits and the changes in interest rates. This analysis enables us to answer the following questions: “Who should have a top priority when the liquidity providing policies through the credit cards are designed and implemented?”. The followings are the main results of this study. First, in the groups with low credit ratings, the effects of the changes in credit limits on the spending are big, and the gap between the changes in credit limits and the time in which their effect is realized is short. Second, the changes in interest rates affected the household spending with a time gap of two months, but their effects are relatively small as compared to those of the changes in credit limits. Third, the concern that the increases in credit limits and the decrease in interest rates may affect the default probability more in the households with low credit standings is not supported empirically On the contrary, it is shown that liquidity-enhancing policies usually have a positive impact of pulling these low credit households out of short-term financial difficulties.
Keywords: 소비성향신용한도이자율채무불이행