Household Debt and the Rise of Financial Fragility in the Tunisian Context

Abstract:

This paper aims at studying the financial vulnerability of the Tunisian household and the extent to which indebtedness is associated with increased “financial fragility”, as measured by the household arrears’ sensitivity to macroeconomic shocks. In addition, the paper attempts to examine whether financial fragility is actually affected by macroeconomic variables. These issues are investigated by applying panel data modeling and vector-error correction mechanisms for household arrears. Overall, the analysis underscores the importance of macroeconomic data in determining the household’s financial fragility. To our best knowledge, the present work is the first of its kind dealing with the subject of Tunisian households under financial distress.