Resumen de The Effects of Over-indebtedness on Individual Health

Maite Blázquez Cuesta, Santiago Budría

• This paper uses panel data from four waves (2002, 2005, 2008 and 2011) of the Spanish Survey of Household Finances (EFF) to investigate whether debts burdens hamper people’s health. Several measures of debt strain are constructed, including debt-to-income ratios, the existence of debt arrears and amounts of outstanding debts. The paper also differentiates between mortgage and non-mortgage debts.

  The results, based on a random effects model, show that non-mortgage debt payments and debt arrears are negatively related with people’s health.