Analysis of difference in household debt across regions of Thailand

Abstract

This study analyzed the determinants of household debt in Thailand at both the regional and the national levels using the panel data of 76 provinces over the years 2009–2017. The Panel Quantile Regression Model was employed to enable the analysis of the formation of household debt ranging from low to high levels. The findings indicate that household indebtedness in different regions has been shaped by a variety of factors, and that households in the same region with different levels of debt burden would experience different impacts or outcomes. We also tested the convergence of household debt, which produced the thought-provoking finding that household debt convergence failed to occur at both the national and the regional levels, while household debt divergence was found instead at the statistical significance level in some regions. The growing debt divergence phenomenon might be an outcome indicator of the unequal access to credit sources among different households in Thai society.