In 2010, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against the credit card networks American Express, MasterCard, and Visa for alleged antitrust violations. We evaluate the extent to which the recently proposed settlement between the DOJ and Visa and MasterCard (henceforth, Proposed...

Merchant fees and reward programs generate an implicit monetary transfer to credit card users from non-card (or cash) users because merchants generally do not set differential prices for card users to recoup the costs of fees and rewards. On average, each cash-using household pays $149 to...

The paper investigates the degree to which buyers choose to diversify their use of payment methods for in-person purchases. Some buyers use only one payment instrument. Others combine the use of mostly cash, credit, debit cards, and a few paper checks and prepaid cards. To each survey...

The emergence of cashless stores has led several cities and states to ban such stores. This paper investigates this issue by characterizing consumers who pay cash for in-person purchases and consumers who do not have credit or debit cards. I construct a model of consumer payment choice and use...

Low-income consumers are not only constrained with spending, but also with the type and variety of payment methods available to them. Using a representative sample of the U.S. adult population, this paper analyzes the low possession (adoption) of credit and debit cards among lowincome consumers...

Cash users withdraw money from automated teller machines (ATMs) to finance cash payments. However, most ATMs in the United States dispense only multiples of $20 bills. The paper first constructs a consumer's optimization model showing how the precise denomination of dollar bills available from...

The study of consumer payment choice at the point of sale involves a classification of payment methods such as cash, credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, paper checks, and electronic payments withdrawn from consumers' bank accounts. I describe alternative methods for studying consumer...

Sales tax is generally not included in the advertised price quoted to consumers in the United States. In contrast, value added taxes (VAT) are embedded into the price in most other countries. This article investigates how the two different pricing structures and consumers' decision-making...

Using a representative sample of the U.S. adult population, we analyze which payment methods consumers use to pay other consumers (p2p) and how these choices depend on transaction and demographic characteristics. We additionally construct a random matching model of consumers with diverse...

This paper contributes to an understanding of internationally generated adjustment costs by demonstrating a statistically significant and economically relevant effect of the real exchange rate on job creation and job destruction in U.S. manufacturing industries over the period 1973 to 1993. The...