Summary The rise of the East-German economy in the 1950s and 1960s and its decline in the 1970s and 1980s is difficult to explain by neoclassical economics. However; the observed life cycle may be explained by the inclusion of concepts from old and new institutional economics and from functional...

In a risky world should governments provide public goods that reduce risk or compensate the victims of bad outcomes through social insurance? This article examines a basic question in designing social protection policies: how should a government allocate a fixed budget between these two...

Purpose – This paper aims to clarify the relationship between wealth and trustworthiness with the goal of understanding why micro‐lending institutions grant loans to poor individuals countering well‐known models of credit markets and credit rationing, such as those proposed by Stiglitz and...

Credit is usually regarded as a minor determinant of customer patronage although it may clinch deals when other components of the marketing mix appear equally attractive. The role and determinants of trade credit policy in general are examined before focusing on the credit decision in...

Consumers tend to have problems interpreting cost information, such as the annual percentage rate (APR), pertaining to loans. Students were used to test people's spontaneous estimates of loan cost when only the payment pattern was known, but not the APR or the total finance charge (FC)....

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to develop a theoretical explanation – financial numeracy – for consumer proficiency with financial services. With sufficient financial numeracy, consumers benefit fully from financial services and make competent choices in regard to financial...

Describes the status of consumer credit services marketing in Turkey. First, presents an overview of developments in the Turkish banking sector with a focus on consumer credit services. Discusses the findings of a survey conducted by the authors among officers of banks offering consumer credit...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to document debt delinquency patterns by family lifecycle categories using multiple data sets that are nationally representative of American families. Design/methodology/approach – Based on previous research, 15 lifecycle categories appropriate for...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to conduct a cross-disciplinary review of the literature on financial exclusion in order to provide a place where one could have a bird’s eye view of the academic activities that have been happening in the area. Design/methodology/approach – As a...

Although older American spend increasingly large sums of money on goods and services, it is widely believed by financial service providers and retailers that these individuals make relatively little use of credit cards. Using a large national sample of respondents from different age groups,...