Attitudes towards Debt and Debt Behavior*

We introduce a novel survey measure of attitude towards debt. Matching our survey results with panel data on Swedish household balance sheets from registry data, we show that our measure of debt attitude helps to explain individual variation in indebtedness as well as debt build-up and spending behavior in the period 2004-2007. As an explanatory variable, debt attitude compares well with a number of other determinants of debt, including education, risk-taking, and financial literacy. We also provide evidence that suggests that debt attitude is passed down along family lines and has a cultural element.