Loretta Mester outlines the components of reform proposals. She then looks at the empirical research on personal bankruptcy to evaluate the rationale for reforming the system and the effectiveness of proposed changes. ; Also issued as Payment Cards Center Discussion Paper No. 02-02

Managing the recovery in uncertain times was the topic of our third annual Philadelphia Fed Policy Forum held on November 14, 2003. This event, sponsored by the Bank’s Research Department, brought together a group of highly respected academics, policymakers, and market economists, for...

Credit scoring is already widely used for consumer lending and is becoming more commonly used in mortgage lending. Now, small business lending is getting into the scoring act. What does this mean for the commercial loan industry? And will it benefit small businesses? In this article, Loretta...

This article updates the information published in an article by Loretta Mester in the March/April 2000 Business Review and last updated in the Third Quarter 2009 issue.

This article presents an update of an article first published in the March/April 2000 Business Review, which presented data from the 1995 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances. Loretta Mester, author of the original article, has compiled information from the 1998 survey to keep readers...

Loretta Mester summarizes the discussion at the 2006 Philadelphia Fed Policy Forum