Interchange fees are an integral part of the pricing structure of credit and debit card industries. While in recent years the theoretical literature on interchange fees, and payment cards in general, has grown rapidly, the empirical literature has not. There are several reasons for this. First,...

Public authorities recently intervened in the U.S. payment card industry to address tensions over the growing fees charged to merchants for processing debit card transactions. In this second article of Hayashi's two-part series, the author reviews how regulatory changes have affected merchants,...

In the last two decades, retail payments have experienced a dramatic shift from paper-based payment methods to electronic methods. Accurate cost information for the two types of methods would help central banks decide how hard to push for a complete transition to electronic methods and which...

Payment card rewards programs have become increasingly popular in the United States. But do consumers really benefit from rewards? In the United States, rewards are paid for primarily by the fees charged to merchants, and merchants may pass on the fees to consumers as higher retail prices....

Mobile payments—those initiated on a mobile device such as a cell phone or tablet computer—have received a significant amount of attention recently but still have not been widely adopted in the United States. ; Hayashi examines the barriers that have limited the takeoff of mobile payments in...

American consumers are using debit cards more than ever before, triggering key changes in the payment card industry and affecting how banks and merchants do business. ; Controversy has arisen as the industry raised the fees it charges on merchants for debit transaction processing—fees that...