As in years past, to catalyze the students in my Ph.D. F798 class to think of finance ideas, I asked each one of them to read the abstracts of finance articles published in the last 5 years in JF, JFE, RFS and JFQA. Some general observations from the hard data above and the soft data generated...

Canadians are avid users of debit and credit cards and other electronic payment options. Compared to consumers in other countries, they are among the heaviest users of debit cards to make purchases at retail stores. But Canada’s payment system has fallen behind – cell phones with payment...