We examine the ability of policymakers to stimulate household borrowing and spending during the Great Recession by reducing banks' cost of funds. Using panel data on 8.5 million U.S. credit card accounts and 743 credit limit regression discontinuities, we estimate the marginal propensity to...

I use data from an online financial service to show that many consumers fail to stick to their self-set debt paydown plans, and argue that this behavior is best explained by present bias. Each user's sensitivity of consumption spending to paycheck receipt proxies for his short-run impatience. I...