Student Loans, Access to Credit and Consumer Financial Behavior

This paper provides novel evidence that increased student loan debts, caused by rising tuitions, increase borrowers' demand for additional consumer debt, while simultaneously restricting their ability to access it. The net effect of student loan debt on consumer borrowing varies by market, depending on whether the supply or demand channel dominates. In loosely underwritten credit markets, increased student loan debt causes borrowing to increase, while in tightly underwritten markets, increased student loan debt reduces the use of credit. These findings match predictions of a standard lifecycle model of household consumption and borrowing, augmented with a realistic student loan repayment contract.

Russian income slide will hurt poorest borrowers

Significance This will affect consumer borrowing as people become unable to afford new loans or repay old ones, and the housing market may experience a slump. Low-interest loan schemes to stop employers laying off staff have not been broad enough in scope to halt rising unemployment numbers, which are likely to be underestimates. Impacts President Vladimir Putin will continue offering subsidies and other welfare improvements to poorer families. The concentration of assets in the 20 largest banks means financial contagion risks remain high, mitigated by the dominance of Sberbank. The historically low key rate, now at 4.5%, will instigate a wave of credit refinancing, reducing borrowers' monthly repayments.

Capital Structure Determinants: A Cross-Country Analysis

This paper examines the capital structure across different countries from 2005 to 2015 in Egypt and other three selected countries namely: Turkey, Brazil and Argentina. The book leverage sensitivity to the explanatory variables (profitability, firm size, tangibility, volatility, GDP growth, inflation and stock market development) was examined. Specifically, this paper documents the determinants of capital structure in Egyptian listed non-financial firms and investigates how capital structure decisions in three other countries who are one-step ahead in terms of economic development entertain any unique features. Profitability was the only variable consistently highly significant with negative coefficient obtained in our regressions for four countries using GMM estimation method. Inconsistency of results for other variables prevailed. Findings reveal that Egyptian firms on average are not highly leveraged due to supply constraints on bank lending and demand constraints on consumer borrowing. The empirical evidence seems reasonably consistent with some versions of capital structure theory and other studies.

The Economic Consequences of Hospital Admissions

We use an event study approach to examine the economic consequences of hospital admissions for adults in two datasets: survey data from the Health and Retirement Study, and hospitalization data linked to credit reports. For non-elderly adults with health insurance, hospital admissions increase out-of-pocket medical spending, unpaid medical bills, and bankruptcy, and reduce earnings, income, access to credit, and consumer borrowing. The earnings decline is substantial compared to the out-of-pocket spending increase, and is minimally insured prior to age-eligibility for Social Security Retirement Income. Relative to the insured non-elderly, the uninsured non-elderly experience much larger increases in unpaid medical bills and bankruptcy rates following a hospital admission. Hospital admissions trigger fewer than 5 percent of all bankruptcies in our sample. (JEL D14, G22, I11, I13)