I study ways the shift in credit price disclosures from dollar terms to interest rates has impacted consumer and firm behavior. In an experiment, I find that consumers cannot, rather than do not, translate interest rates into cost obligations, causing both underconsumption and overconsumption of...

I study agency problems between brokers and investors in the retail bond market. Thepresence of suitability or fiduciary regulations, which govern transactions in this setting, canlead to tensions for brokers between maximizing their own profit and acting in the best interestsof their customers....

A timely reminder on an app or website prompts delinquent credit card debtors with strong credit records to repay but is ineffective for debtors with weak credit records. We study field data from a 2015-16 randomized controlled trial of a broadcast reminder received by 30-days-overdue credit...

Recent years have seen growth in the use of certain types of nontraditional lending products, such as payday lending and auto title lending, and a relative decline of others, such as finance companies and pawnbrokers. Congress is currently considering major new regulations on short-term lending...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is considering new regulation of payday lending and bank overdraft protection. The Dodd-Frank Act, which established the CFPB, recognizes that consumers benefit from competition among providers of consumer credit products. That law requires the...

Young borrowers are the least experienced financially and, conventionally, thought to be most prone to financial problems. Our results challenge the notion that young borrowers are bad credit card users. We first show that the CARD Act of 2009 succeeded in its aim of reducing young borrowers'...

Low-income households often lack access to banking accounts and face high costs for transacting basic financial services through check cashers and other alternative financial service providers. These families find it more difficult to save and plan financially for the future. Living paycheck to...

In Deutschland verfügen etwa 80 Prozent der Haushalte über einen Dispositionskredit. Bei beträchtlicher Variation liegt der eingeräumte Kreditrahmen bei knapp dem 3-fachen des Nettoeinkommens. Arbeitslose, Alleinerziehende, Paare mit Kindern und Selbständige nutzen den Dispositionskredit...

Banking the unbanked is a common policy goal, but should this include access to bank accounts for minors? This study estimates how teenagers' access to bank accounts affects their financial development. Using variation in state laws, we show policies that permit access to independently-owned...

Following concerns about undervaluation of minority-owned homes, we examine the incidence of racial appraisal bias using a nationwide sample of refinanced mortgages from 2000 to 2007. A unique feature of our data is that they allow us to observe the race of the both the homeowner and the...