Household debt has played a central role in the global financial crisis, yet our understanding of it remains limited. We put U.S. household leverage in an international perspective, using household‐level data for the United States and 10 euro area economies. U.S. households have the highest prevalence of mortgage and consumer debt, hold comparatively large amounts and face higher debt burdens despite having higher income. We find that the U.S. economic environment is associated with a higher propensity to hold debt, primarily because a given level of collateral is associated with higher prevalence and larger amounts of mortgage debt in the United States.

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探索美国和欧元区国家的家庭债务差异

家庭债务在全球金融危机中发挥了核心作用，但我们对其的理解仍然有限。我们使用美国和10个欧元区经济体的家庭水平数据，将美国的家庭杠杆作用放在国际视野中。美国家庭抵押贷款和消费者债务的患病率最高，尽管收入较高，但持有的住房数量相对较大，并且面临更高的债务负担。我们发现，美国的经济环境与较高的债务持有倾向相关，这主要是因为给定的抵押品水平与美国较高的普遍性和大量抵押贷款相关。