This paper sheds light on the factors affecting household credit aspects in four European countries, such as Germany, Netherlands, Portugal and Italy, further extending the analysis of Xidonas et al. (2025) about France. It exploits the third wave of the Household Finance and Consumption Survey conducted by the European Central Bank, utilizing datasets from 4,919 German households, 2,344 Dutch households, 5,914 Portuguese households and 6,998 Italian households.
Focussing on a broad set of household variables, covering dimensions such as demographics, employment, income, wealth, assets and expenditures, we estimate four logistic regression models of strong significance that capture the behavioural factors of the households which apply for credit.
We identify three robust patterns. First, life-cycle effects dominate, i.e., younger households are consistently more likely to apply for credit. Second, wealth composition matters more than income, i.e., liquid wealth substitutes for credit everywhere, while total assets facilitate access. And third, institutional and cultural differences shape motives.
Our findings comply with the current literature and provide new micro- and macro-level insights into our core research question. Finally, we provide an elaborate policy implications discussion associated with the qualitative aspects of our results.
