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The study aims to explore the discrepancy between the subjective and objective debt burdens across various household socio-demographic and debt characteristics. Additionally, it seeks to establish an optimal debt service-to-income ratio (DSTI) threshold for identifying over-indebtedness.

This study utilized a sample of 1,004 respondents from a nationwide survey conducted among Polish indebted households. A discrepancy ratio (DR) measure was proposed to evaluate the divergence between subjective and objective over-indebtedness. Binary logistic regression was employed to estimate the probability of being subjectively and objectively over-indebted, as well as the discrepancy between the two measures of over-indebtedness. The study also employed numerical simulations to determine the optimal DSTI threshold for identifying over-indebted households in general and based on their socio-economic characteristics.

The study established a debt service-to-income ratio (DSTI) threshold of 20% to minimize the discrepancy between subjective and objective debt burden, which is lower than thresholds found in other studies aimed at identifying over-indebted households. Age, number of loans, self-perceived needs satisfaction and type of debt were identified as significant socio-economic and debt-related determinants of over-indebtedness. Household socio-economic and debt-related characteristics significantly influence the threshold for identifying over-indebtedness using DSTI. It can vary widely, ranging from as low as 11% for well-educated women with multiple loan commitments to 43.7% for young males with vocational education, high incomes and originating from households with four or more members.

The paper proposes a more comprehensive approach to debt burden analysis by introducing a new methodology for determining a debt service-to-income (DSTI) threshold that could serve as a measure of over-indebtedness based on the discrepancy between subjective and objective over-indebtedness. It also emphasizes the significance of socio-economic and debt-related factors in evaluating subjective and objective over-indebtedness.

This chapter aims to clarify the distinction between feeling grateful and feeling indebted. Often overlooked and underappreciated, the differences that define these unique affective experiences are critical to understanding the consequences of helping behavior. This chapter describes the psychological underpinnings of gratitude and indebtedness and outlines the ways in which previous research has conflated the two constructs. In addition, it puts forth a set of testable propositions that help distinguish the relative importance of gratitude and indebtedness in interpersonal relations. The implications of these ideas are discussed in the context of individual generosity, social exchange, and group dynamics.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between political connections and the over-indebtedness of firms in the construction industry. Furthermore, this study explores the moderating effect of corporate governance mechanisms with monitoring intent on this relationship.

This study uses the data from China’s listed construction firms for the years 2010–2019 to run the fixed-effect regression. This study constructs the optimal capital structure mathematical model by following the trade-off approach.

The research results show that most of China’s listed construction firms are surprisingly over-indebted in the long run. This study affirms that political connections positively impact the over-indebtedness of China’s listed construction firms. However, corporate governance can alleviate the impact of political connections on the over-indebtedness of China’s listed construction firms.

There were limited studies to discuss the relationship between political connections and the over-indebtedness of construction firms, and no particular attention has been given to the moderating effect of corporate governance mechanisms on the relationship between political connections and over-indebtedness. Moreover, in calculating the over-indebtedness of China’s listed construction firms, this study considers the financial characteristics of China’s construction firms when building the mathematical model of optimal capital structure, which makes the calculation results of over-indebtedness closer to reality.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the financing practices of unlisted manufacturing firms in India. In particular, the authors seek to explore how unlisted firms finance their growth and the extent to which they rely on external source of finance. Additionally, they explore whether the determinants of indebtedness that explain the borrowing behavior of listed Indian manufacturing firms are capable of explaining the financing decisions of unlisted firms as well.

This paper uses panel data technique to determine the factors determining indebtedness of unlisted private manufacturing firms in India.

Unlisted Indian manufacturing firms are largely dependent on bank borrowing for their growth, and access to finance is largely dependent on collateral capacity. The authors results show that the dominant firm factors affecting indebtedness of unlisted firms in India are asset tangibility, firm growth, size, profitability and firm age. Institutional and macroeconomic factors are also observed to be significant influencers of indebtedness.

Unavailability of financial information for the required number of years has resulted in certain firms and sectors of the economy not being included in the sample, and has, hence, affected sample size and representation. Similar problems have limited the period of the study to only four years. The study does not include unlisted services sector firms in the sample, and, hence, its findings cannot be generalized in the context of unlisted firms in India.

There appears to be a strong case for both the policy-maker and financial economist to have a re-look at the financial constraints that unlisted firms face and redefine the role of the banks and financial institutions from being a passive provider of capital to that of a partner in ushering growth. Development of the financial intermediary sector in terms of its reach is expected to favorably influence growth of this sector.

This paper provides empirical evidence on the alternative sources of raising outside capital and the factors determining the capital structure of unlisted manufacturing firms in India.

The purpose of this paper is to show that indebtedness can have a positive meaning for people who are embedded in social relationships in organizations if it is meant in the light of the notion of gratitude, gift-giving and generalized reciprocity.

The study reviews the literature on the common notion of indebtedness and integrates it with the literature on gratitude, gift-giving and generalized reciprocity.

The study reveals that through the notion of gratitude, gift-giving and generalized reciprocity people may conceive their indebtedness as gratitude for having received something, so triggering giving behaviors that does not necessarily aim to repay the debt, but to develop and feed their social relationships.

In the past indebtedness has been conceived as a negative feeling. This study reveals that it may have also a bright side when it is applied to people in flesh and bones, as they are immersed in good quality social relationships.

This study aims to develop and test a parsimonious theoretical model of risky indebtedness behaviour, a facet of over-indebtedness that refers to the behavioural tendency of often assuming hazardous debt levels.

The authors administered an online survey to credit card owners (n = 1,288) in an emerging economy in which consumer credit is characterized by extremely high interest rates (i.e. Brazil). The authors used covariance-based structural equation modelling to analyse the data and test for mediation effects.

Individuals who inadvertently consider their credit limits a part of their current income or are typically anxious about money are prone to engage in impulsive buying and, consequently, risky indebtedness behaviour. By engaging in such indebtedness behaviour, individuals weaken their financial preparedness for emergencies, which potentially jeopardizes their overall financial well-being.

As indebtedness is a highly sensitive issue, the self-report measures used may have produced social desirability bias.

This study discusses the responsibility of financial institutions to support consumers in building awareness on how to adequately use financial services and to provide credit access to high-risk consumers. Policymakers need to ensure that those in the private sector play fairly.

This study adds new knowledge about how destructive financial behaviours operate and impact marketing and consumers’ financial well-being. It theorizes about indebtedness by critically examining existing and newly developed concepts in the financial services marketing literature.

According to the 70th round of the National Sample Survey published by the Government of India in 2014, the incidence of indebtedness among households in the rural areas of Telangana state, India, is twice that of rural all-India. Around 59 per cent of rural households are indebted in Telangana as against 31 per cent all-India. The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent and magnitude of indebtedness among rural households in the Medak district of Telangana state. Further, the authors wanted to identify the sources of credit to these households and for what purpose the loans were utilised.

To achieve the objective, the authors conducted a primary-level household survey in one of the distressed districts in newly formed state. The authors applied the Bayesian and the Lasso regression methods to identify the factors that impact indebtedness of a household.

The OLS results based on the Lasso regression results show that among all the explanatory variables, principal occupation, use of modern technology, the rate of interest, household medical expenditure and source of loan are significant, indicating that these variables significantly affect the loan taken by the farmers in the study area. The study shows that alternative sources of non-farm income and promotion of modern technology in agriculture can reduce the incidence of farmers’ indebtedness in India.

The paper contains significant information with regard to indebtedness. It focusses on the issue troubling the authorities the most. It provides the ground realities of the incidence of indebtedness in Medak, one of the most distressed districts of Telangana, a Southern Indian state. There have been very few similar studies done in the newly formed state. The paper has employed an advanced statistical technique, i.e. Heckman’s selection regression technique, to study farmers’ indebtedness in India. It provides a means of correcting for non-randomly selected samples, which otherwise can lead to erroneous conclusions and poor policy.

This paper seeks to measure and characterise the extent of consumer over‐indebtedness among the European Union (EU) member states.

The study evaluates alternative measures of over‐indebtedness on the basis of the permanent‐income/life‐cycle theories of consumption behaviour and adopts a subjective approach in identifying over‐indebted households on the basis of European household survey data. It then investigates the main characteristics of over‐indebted households.

The empirical results reveal that over‐indebtedness was a significant problem across EU member states in the mid‐1990s. Moreover, an inverse relationship emerged between the extent of the over‐indebtedness problem and the extent of consumer borrowing across EU countries.

Anecdotal evidence seemed to suggest that some main factors behind over‐indebtedness could be “market failure” on the credit market, the existence of liquidity constraints and lack of access to formal credit markets. However, a comprehensive and rigorous investigation of the extent and determinants of over‐indebtedness can only be achieved through analysis of more extended household data sets, particularly panel data.

The EU credit markets exhibited certain symptoms of “market failure”, on the one hand, and there was also need for further financial liberalisation in the Southern European countries, on the other hand.

The paper provides a first systematic evaluation of existing measures of consumer over‐indebtedness as well as the first EU‐wide empirical investigation of the problem. It should provide valuable information to the credit industry as well as financial regulatory bodies.

This study aims to further analyse the decision-making process of low-income consumer from an emerging market by verifying the influence of regulatory focus and construal level theory on indebtedness.

An experimental study was carried out with a design 2 (regulatory focus: promotion vs prevention) × 2 (psychological distance: high vs low) between subjects, with 140 low-income consumers.

Our study points out that the propensity towards indebtedness of low-income consumer is higher in a distal psychological distance. We found that promotion and prevention groups have the same propensity to indebtedness. Moreover, we highlight that low-income consumers are prone to propensity to indebtedness due to taking decisions focused on the present with an abstract mindset.

Financial awareness advertisements should focus on providing more concrete strategies in order to reduce decision-making complexity and provide ways to reduce competing situations that could deplete self-regulation resources. Also, public policy should organize educational programs to increase the low-income consumer's ability to deal with personal finances and reduce this task complexity. Finally, educational financial programs should also incorporate psychology professionals to teach mindfulness techniques applied to financial planning.

This study is the first to consider regulatory focus and construal level to explain low-income indebtedness. This paper provides a deeper analysis of the low-income consumers' decision process. Also, it supports and guides future academic and decision-making efforts.

The purpose of this is to propose a model in which materialism is a mediator of the effects of self-esteem, impulsiveness, attitude toward debt, attitude toward credit card and economic vulnerability on consumer indebtedness. The effects of financial knowledge, financial ability, credit card use and demographic variables are also taken into account.

Survey data from a sample of 1,245 low-income consumers from Brazil were used to test the hypotheses using structural equation modeling.

First, materialism has a significant effect on consumer indebtedness; at the same time, it is influenced by self-esteem, impulsiveness and attitude toward debt. Second, materialism acts as a mediator, e.g. higher impulsiveness triggers materialism, which influences debt level. Third, indebtedness is higher for women and those who use a higher number of credit cards and are more educated.

Financial education programs should work to increase individual’s perceived ability to manage money, as the individuals who feel less able to manage their personal finances alone (i.e. lower financial ability) presented higher indebtedness.

This study investigates consumer indebtedness by addressing factors that have been analyzed independently in the literature. The research combines psychological, financial and economic factors with credit card use and demographic variables to explain consumer indebtedness. Moreover, the study supports the mediating role of materialism for the antecedents of consumer indebtedness, e.g. impulsiveness and attitude toward debt.