Paper details

Paper authors	Sajid Javed
In panel on	Precarity and Debt: The Vicissitudes of Credit and “Upliftment” in Asia and Africa
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

Primarily I intend to ignite a debate on definition and concept of households’ indebtedness. I argue that present inquiry into the issue needs improved understanding on at least three fronts. First, what should be the matter of concern indebtedness, over-indebtedness or structural indebtedness? Second, even if it is over-indebtedness, as practiced presently, what is the definition of it? Can we apply a single measure to group of people who are heterogeneous? For example, present literature reads a household over-indebted if 30% of income goes to debt servicing/repayment. This may not be a good measure if we read it in context of marginal value of money allocated for debt servicing. Third, the measures at household level may lead to inefficient conclusions if not adjusted for family size and composition. In this context, this policy paper interrogates definition and concepts of household indebtedness in Pakistan and argues that household indebtedness must be discussed in relation to ideas of “indebtedness”, “over-indebtedness” and “structural indebtedness.” Using quantitative data from Pakistan Household Survey, I show evince for outlined arguments. Overall, the study calls for a nuanced approach to defining and measuring indebtedness. In addition to contributing to the literature on indebtedness in general, findings have implications for designing household indebtedness related interventions, including conflict affected areas.

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