Household over-indebtedness in northern and southern countries: a macro-perspective

Jean-Michel Servet (1) , Hadrien Saiag (2)

1 IHEID - Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement
2 IIAC - Institut interdisciplinaire d'anthropologie du contemporain

In the North, indebtedness is a well-documented fact. Little data is available from the South. But there is a growing mismatch between monetary income and cash needs, the source of debt. To grasp its magnitude, the process of financialization is revisited. It is based on a growing monetization of social relationships. The third part discusses a key element of over-indebtedness: inflation. If social relations would allow it, modest inflation would be a relatively peaceful way to solve the problem of growing private and public debt in a way that favours lenders.

Domaines: Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie; Sociologie; Economies et finances

Jean-Michel Servet, Hadrien Saiag. Household over-indebtedness in northern and southern countries: a macro-perspective. Isabelle Guérin; Solène Morvant-Roux; Magdalena Villarreal. Microfinance, debt and over-indebtedness : Juggling with money, Routledge, pp.45-66, 2013, 978-0-415-83525-1. ⟨halshs-02343502⟩