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Jel Classification:D18 

Working Paper
Consumer Bankruptcy, Mortgage Default and Labor Supply

We specify and estimate a lifecycle model of consumption, housing demand and labor supply in an environment where individuals may file for bankruptcy or default on their mortgage. Uncertainty in the model is driven by house price shocks, education specific productivity shocks, and catastrophic consumption events, while bankruptcy is governed by the basic institutional framework in the U.S. as implied by Chapter 7 and Chapter 13. The model is estimated using micro data on credit reports and mortgages combined with data from the American Community Survey. We use the model to understand the ...
Working Papers , Paper 22-26

Report
Personal Bankruptcy Protection and Household Debt

Increasing personal bankruptcy protection raises consumers’ desire to borrow and lenders’ cost of extending credit; the impact on equilibrium borrowing is ambiguous. Using bankruptcy protection changes between 1999 and 2005 across U.S. states, we find that borrowers respond to greater protection by increasing their unsecured debt. Border county estimates suggest that local economic conditions do not drive these results. Borrowers pay more for protection through higher interest rates, yet delinquency is unaffected. Remarkably, our results indicate that rising borrower demand outstripped ...
Staff Reports , Paper 1099

Discussion Paper
How Does Buy Now, Pay Later Affect Customers’ Credit?

This paper explores the relationship between consumers’ use of buy now, pay later (BNPL) and their credit reports. We conduct this analysis to evaluate concerns that BNPL use could negatively affect consumers’ financial health.
Consumer Finance Institute discussion papers , Paper DP23-01

Working Paper
Debt Collection Agencies and the Supply of Consumer Credit

This paper finds that stricter laws regulating third-party debt collection reduce the number of third-party debt collectors, lower the recovery rates on delinquent credit card loans, and lead to a modest decrease in the openings of new revolving lines of credit. Further, stricter third-party debt collection laws are associated with fewer consumer lawsuits against third-party debt collectors but not with a reduction in the overall number of consumer complaints. Overall, stricter third-party debt collection laws appear to restrict access to new revolving credit but have an ambiguous effect on ...
Working Papers , Paper 20-06

Working Paper
Automated Credit Limit Increases and Consumer Welfare

In the United States, credit card companies frequently use machine learning algorithms to proactively raise credit limits for borrowers. In contrast, an increasing number of countries have begun to prohibit credit limit increases initiated by banks rather than consumers. In this paper, we exploit detailed regulatory micro data to examine the extent to which bank-initiated credit limit increases are directed towards individuals with revolving debt. We then develop a model that captures the costs and benefits of regulating proactive credit limit increases, which we use to quantify their ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2025-088

Working Paper
New Evidence on an Old Unanswered Question : Why Some Borrowers Purchase Credit Insurance and Other Debt Protection and Some Do Not

Credit related insurance and other debt protection are products sold in conjunction with credit that extinguish a consumer?s debt or suspends its periodic payments if events like death, disability, or involuntary unemployment occur. High penetration rates observed in the 1950s and 1960s raised concerns about coercion in the sale of credit insurance. This study presents evidence on credit insurance purchase and debt protection decisions from a new survey. The findings provide little evidence of widespread or systematic coercion in purchases. Instead, findings suggest that risk aversion and ...
Finance and Economics Discussion Series , Paper 2017-122

Discussion Paper
Consumer use of fraud alerts and credit freezes: an empirical analysis

Fraud alerts ? initial fraud alerts, extended fraud alerts, and credit freezes ? help protect consumers from the consequences of identity theft. At the same time, they may impose costs on lenders, credit bureaus, and, in some instances, consumers. We analyze a unique data set of anonymized credit bureau files to understand how consumers use these alerts. We document the frequency and persistence of fraud alerts and credit freezes. Using the experience of the data breach at the South Carolina Department of Revenue, we show that consumers who file initial fraud alerts or credit freezes likely ...
Consumer Finance Institute discussion papers , Paper 14-4

Report
Did the Target Data Breach Change Consumer Assessments of Payment Card Security?

Previous research has found that perceptions of payment security affect consumers’ use of payment instruments. We test whether the Target data breach in 2013 was associated with a change in consumers’ perceptions of the security of credit cards and debit cards and with subsequent changes in consumers’ use of payment cards. Using data from the Survey of Consumer Payment Choice (SCPC), we find that, controlling for possible confounding effects of demographic differences between the two groups, ratings by consumers who assessed the security of personal information of debit cards shortly ...
Consumer Payments Research Data Reports , Paper 2016-01

Working Paper
Defining Households That Are Underserved in Digital Payment Services

US households that lack digital means of making and receiving payments cannot participate fully in an increasingly digitized economy. Assessing the scope of this problem and addressing it requires a definition of households that are underserved in digital payments. Traditional definitions of households underserved in the banking system—those that are unbanked and those that are underbanked—do not account for the ownership of nonbank transaction accounts that can be used to make and receive digital payments. In this paper, we define households underserved in digital payments by considering ...
Working Papers , Paper 24-10

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Hunt, Robert M. 12 items

Blascak, Nathan 8 items

Mikhed, Vyacheslav 8 items

Ritter, Dubravka 8 items

Vogan, Michael 8 items

Cheney, Julia S. 7 items

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consumer credit 6 items

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