The Impact of Age on Polish Households Financial Behavior – Indebtedness and Over-Indebtedness

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine how age of the head of household affects the financial behavior of households in terms of indebtedness and over-indebtedness. The over-indebtedness was analyzed from two aspects – margin and debt service ratio indicators. The data from Household Budget Survey in 2011 conducted by Central Statistical Office of Poland was used in the analyses. To achieve the main objective, selected measures of descriptive statistics and contingency tables were used. The research results confirm that in Poland credits were taken mainly by households of young people, which is consistent with assumptions of the life cycle hypothesis. Although these assumptions were not confirmed in the case of a problem with over-indebtedness.