Driver hushållens skulder konsumtionen? : En jämförande studie av Sverige, Norge, Danmark och Finland

Sammanfattning: The consumption levels in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway have been rising fo r the last decade. Even after the financial crisis of 2008, consumption levels continued their upward trend, regardless of the recession. The explanation seems to be, at least partly, that households tends to increase their debt ratio in order to continue the same standard of living as before in terms of consumption. It is clear, based of our results, that there is a connection between increased consumption and debt ratio for households. And the consequences of allowing loans to finance a sustained or increasing consumption may ultimately be difficult to manage. This paper compares Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark to analyze if it is possible to see differences in how debt has affected the consumption since the millennium until 2012. Three different regression models were specified to analyze the data.