Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 7 - The Political and Socioeconomic Consequences of Credit and Debt

  • Andreas Wiedemann, Princeton University, New Jersey
  • Book:
    Indebted Societies
    Published online:
    18 June 2021
    Print publication:
    08 July 2021, pp 200-233

  • Summary

    This chapter introduces a new theoretical framework that helps explain how access to credit and indebtedness shape social policy preferences. Credit markets privatize both risks and opportunities. They enable individuals to self-insure against social risks and to opt out of publicly provided social services, reaping the benefits of private, credit-funded alternatives in human capital (e.g., education) and financial assets (e.g., housing) with the expectation of economic gains and upward mobility. But indebtedness can also increase economic risks by making borrowers vulnerable to income volatility and income losses that threaten debt repayments. Using original survey data, this chapter documents considerable divergence of social policy preferences across countries (depending on the structure of the welfare state and credit regime), across households (depending on whether they borrow for consumption or investment), and across the political ideology spectrum (depending on people’s relative belief in personal responsibility and market efficacy).