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100 _aMarquina, Alejandro Martínez and Shi, Mike
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245 _aThe opportunity cost of debt aversion.
260 _aThe American Economic Review
300 _a114(4), Apr, 2024: p.1140-1172
520 _aWe provide evidence of the existence of debt aversion and its negative implications for financial decisions. In a new experimental design where subjects are assigned debt randomly, we quantify the opportunity cost of subjects' debt-biased decisions. One-third of our participants neglect high returns and focus instead on debt repayments. In addition, borrowing to invest is 50 percent less likely when it leads to indebtedness. On average, participants perceive $1 less in debt as equivalent to $1.03 in savings. Hence, a debt-averse agent will undertake a 10 percent guaranteed investment only if the cost of borrowing does not exceed 6.80 percent.- Reproduced https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20221509
650 _aOpportunity Cost, Debt Aversion, Financial Decisions, Experimental Design, Random Debt Assignment, Debt-Biased Decisions, High Returns, Debt Repayments, Borrowing to Invest, Indebtedness, Savings Perception, Guaranteed Investment, Cost of Borrowing, Economic Behavior, Risk Assessment, Investment Strategy, Behavioral Finance, Credit Constraints, Decision-Making, Debt Psychology.
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773 _aThe American Economic Review
906 _aDEBT
942 _cAR