Download or read book Essays on Consumer Finance written by Brian T. Melzer and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Three Essays on Consumer Finance written by Manisha Padi and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This thesis consists of three chapters on consumer financial contracts. Particularly, this thesis focuses on the regulation and design of markets for financial contracts, and their impact on household financial health. The first chapter studies the role of consumer protection law in the function of mortgage markets in the United States. Consumer protection laws are intended to improve consumer outcomes and are becoming more common, particularly in mortgage markets after the 2008 recession. Little empirical evidence exists about the benefits of these laws to consumer outcomes, relative to the potential compliance costs. This chapter studies the effect of two common types of consumer protection laws: seller standards of conduct, enforced through ex post lawsuits by prosecutors and consumers, and mandated disclosures, which require sellers to provide consumers with information to help them make better decisions. Using a natural experiment in Ohio, which introduced the Homebuyer's Protection Act in 2007, 1 study the impact of both seller standards of conduct and mandated disclosures on the performance of loans owned by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac between 2002 and 2012. I find that imposing standards of conduct on lenders increases borrower defaults in the short term, and is correlated with a drop in foreclosures and fewer mortgage originations. Mandated disclosures decrease mortgage defaults in the short term, and the effect is correlated with smaller transactions, lower interest rates, and higher borrower credit scores. I introduce a simple model of strategic default showing that standards of conduct targeting lenders can provide incentives to lenders to be lenient towards all borrowers, increase borrower default, while mandated disclosure can induce behaviorally biased consumers to default less often. Taken together, the evidence suggests that seller standards of conduct result in lender lenience towards borrowers but operate by shifting the cost of dropping house prices from borrowers onto lenders. On the other hand, carefully designed disclosures can encourage consumers to be more responsible in repayment of loans and can decrease the overall impact of unexpected drops in house prices. The second chapter studies the impact of defined benefit pensions on retirees' consumption patterns. It is authored jointly with Professor Jerry Hausman. Retirees discontinuously decrease their consumption spending upon retirement, a phenomenon described as the retirement consumption puzzle. This chapter studies the impact of defined benefit pensions on the retirement consumption puzzle. Data from the Health and Retirement Survey shows that households with defined benefit pensions experience a significantly smaller drop in consumption spending at retirement. The difference in consumption patterns between households with defined benefit and defined contribution pensions is consistent with a drop in price of home production after retirement. Defined benefit pensions allow households to exert less effort in home production, as well as decreasing the need for precautionary savings, meaning their value is understated if home production is not accounted for. Using HRS data, we estimate the utility value of defined benefit pensions, incorporating both home production and precautionary savings. The results imply that current methods of valuing retirement income products, such as employer provided pensions and private annuities, are biased downward. The third chapter studies the purchase of annuities by retirees in Chile's privatized social security system. It is authored jointly with Gaston Illanes, of Northwestern University Department of Economics. Chile has one of the highest voluntary annuitization rates in the world, with more than 60% of retirees purchasing a private annuity. In contrast, less than 5% of US retirees purchase annuities, despite theoretical predictions that annuity value is high. Annuities in Chile are sold through a unique government-run exchange which decrease search costs and intensifies competition without imposing costs on firms. Chile also has a privatized social security system in which retirees that do not buy an annuity must take a "programmed withdrawal" of their mandated retirement savings that exposes them to more stock market risk than Social Security would. Using novel individual level administrative data and theoretical calibrations, we provide evidence that the high annuitization rate is driven by Chile's unique regulatory regime, rather than by the risk of programmed withdrawal in a privatized system. We document several features of the annuity exchange in Chile. First, annuity prices are low compared to the worldwide average. Second, annuity providers have significant market power. Third, selection exists in the market, both into purchase of annuities, and into searching for better prices. Based on these facts, we calibrate a insurance value of full annuitization compared to the privatized alternative offered by the Chilean government and compare to the value of full annuitization compared to public Social Security, such as that found in the US. The calibration suggests that privatization of social security alone cannot explain the high level of annuitization in Chile. Regulations limiting search costs can cause low prices, lower levels of adverse selection, and high brand preferences that together can explain the high annuitization rate.

Download or read book Essays in Consumer Finance written by Susan Payne Carter and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Three Essays in Consumer Finance written by Hyounjin Yi and published by . This book was released on 2010 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract: My dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay examines the relationship between household debt and consumption growth. I construct a household Debt Index based on nationally representative household level data. The Debt Index consists of four components which include debt-income ratio, debt-asset ratio, number of missed payments and required monthly payment-income ratio. I test whether the Debt Index has predictive power for consumption growth and find that it does not show predictive power. The second essay investigates the choice of payment method. Since credit card debt comes with a high interest rate, those who carry revolving credit on their credit cards face higher costs when they pay with a credit card than when they pay using other payment methods. This essay examines whether or not cash, check, and debit card use correlate with interest rates on credit cards applied to credit card revolvers. The findings indicate that among three non-credit card payment methods, only check use shows positive correlation, while cash and debit card use do not show any correlation with the interest rates on credit cards. This can be interpreted to mean that check users are more sensitive to pecuniary costs in payment than cash and debit card users. The last essay considers how education loans impact the early labor market behavior. Among several aspects of early labor market behavior, I investigate two issues. First, I investigate the transition time from school to work of young college graduates. Estimation results from Cox proportional hazard model show that those who have positive amounts of education loan take less transition time from school to work than those who do not have an education loan. When I examine the impact of an education loan on each gender, both genders show shorter transition time from college to work if they carry an education loan. However, the magnitude of the impact of an education loan on the transition time to one's first job shows a gender difference. For women, the difference in the time-to-first-job between those who have a positive amount of education loan and those who do not have an education loan is large. The difference in the time-to-first-job between people with an education loan and people without one is also observed in men, although the difference is smaller than that in women. Second, I examine the impact of educational loans on the tenure of the first job of college graduates. Using the survival analysis method, I find that the impact of education loans on the tenure of one's first job shows gender difference. Female workers with a positive amount of education loans show shorter tenure than female workers without education loans. Contrary to female workers, male workers do not show any difference in their tenure at their first job by education loans.

Download or read book Essays at the Intersection of Institutional and Consumer Finance written by Quinn Dominick Curtis and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Essays on Regulating Consumer Finance written by Talia B. Gillis and published by . This book was released on 2020 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Essays in Consumer and Corporate Finance written by Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tension between creditors and debtors is an integral component in finance. My dissertation focuses on two important cases where this tension has important economic implications. In my first two chapters, I focus on debtor protections in consumer finance. In chapter one, I examine the institution of consumer bankruptcy and the effect it has on consumers' access to credit and subsequent financial health. In chapter two, I study the effect of debtor protections during the recent recession, and quantify the extent to which these policies can alleviate the decline associated with debt-driven recessions. Finally, in the third chapter, I focus on the governance of firms, specifically examining a new measure capturing the extent to which foreign firms cross-listing in the United States bind to domestic governance rules. In sum, my dissertation chapters provide new perspectives on the interaction between creditors and debtors, and the extent to which policy environments can influence this interaction.

Download or read book Essays in Macroeconomics and Consumer Finance written by Jan Sun and published by . This book was released on 2022* with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Consumer Credit and the American Economy written by Thomas A. Durkin and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 737 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Consumer Credit and the American Economy examines the economics, behavioral science, sociology, history, institutions, law, and regulation of consumer credit in the United States. After discussing the origins and various kinds of consumer credit available in today's marketplace, this book reviews at some length the long run growth of consumer credit to explore the widely held belief that somehow consumer credit has risen "too fast for too long." It then turns to demand and supply with chapters discussing neoclassical theories of demand, new behavioral economics, and evidence on production costs and why consumer credit might seem expensive compared to some other kinds of credit like government finance. This discussion includes review of the economics of risk management and funding sources, as well discussion of the economic theory of why some people might be limited in their credit search, the phenomenon of credit rationing. This examination includes review of issues of risk management through mathematical methods of borrower screening known as credit scoring and financial market sources of funding for offerings of consumer credit. The book then discusses technological change in credit granting. It examines how modern automated information systems called credit reporting agencies, or more popularly "credit bureaus," reduce the costs of information acquisition and permit greater credit availability at less cost. This discussion is followed by examination of the logical offspring of technology, the ubiquitous credit card that permits consumers access to both payments and credit services worldwide virtually instantly. After a chapter on institutions that have arisen to supply credit to individuals for whom mainstream credit is often unavailable, including "payday loans" and other small dollar sources of loans, discussion turns to legal structure and the regulation of consumer credit. There are separate chapters on the theories behind the two main thrusts of federal regulation to this point, fairness for all and financial disclosure. Following these chapters, there is another on state regulation that has long focused on marketplace access and pricing. Before a final concluding chapter, another chapter focuses on two noncredit marketplace products that are closely related to credit. The first of them, debt protection including credit insurance and other forms of credit protection, is economically a complement. The second product, consumer leasing, is a substitute for credit use in many situations, especially involving acquisition of automobiles. This chapter is followed by a full review of consumer bankruptcy, what happens in the worst of cases when consumers find themselves unable to repay their loans. Because of the importance of consumer credit in consumers' financial affairs, the intended audience includes anyone interested in these issues, not only specialists who spend much of their time focused on them. For this reason, the authors have carefully avoided academic jargon and the mathematics that is the modern language of economics. It also examines the psychological, sociological, historical, and especially legal traditions that go into fully understanding what has led to the demand for consumer credit and to what the markets and institutions that provide these products have become today.

Download or read book Essays on Consumer Finance written by Atilla Gumus and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Essays in Fiscal Policy and Consumer Finance written by Sandesh Dhungana and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Future recessions with limitations on conventional monetary policy will especially be important times when these debates will play out. I hope this research provides useful information in the design and analysis of future counter-cyclical fiscal policies.

Download or read book Essays on Consumer Credit Markets written by Mark William Jenkins and published by Stanford University. This book was released on 2009 with total page 135 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation studies the organization of consumer credit markets using a rich and novel dataset from a large subprime auto lender. Its primary goal is to develop empirical methods for analyzing markets with asymmetric information and to use these methods to better understand the behavior of subprime borrowers and lenders. The first chapter quantifies the importance of adverse selection and moral hazard in the subprime auto loan market and shows how different loan contract terms serve to mitigate these distinct information problems. The second chapter examines the impact of centralized credit scoring on lending outcomes, including the distribution of performance across dealerships within the firm. The third chapter studies borrower repayment behavior and quantifies the impact of ex post moral hazard on interest rates and the costs of default. Collectively, the three chapters provide a better understanding of the functioning of markets for subprime credit in the U.S. They also provide unique empirical evidence on the importance of asymmetric information and the value of screening, monitoring, and contract design in consumer credit markets in general.

Download or read book Essays in Corporate and Consumer Finance written by Benjamin Charles Iverson and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first essay tests whether Chapter 11 restructuring outcomes are affected by time constraints in busy bankruptcy courts. Using the passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act in 2005 as an exogenous shock to court caseloads, I estimate the impact of bankruptcy caseload changes on the outcomes of firms in Chapter 11. I find that as bankruptcy judges become busier they tend to allow more firms to reorganize. Firms that reorganize in busy courts spend longer in bankruptcy, while firms that are dismissed from busy courts are more likely to re-file for bankruptcy within three years of their original filing. In addition, busy courts impose costs on local banks, which report higher charge-offs on business lending when caseload increases.

Download or read book Essays on Consumer Finance written by Kathryn Fritzdixon and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Elusive Stability written by Barry Eichengreen and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1990 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new interpretation of the operation and macroeconomic repercussions of the international monetary system during the interwar years.

Download or read book Essays on Health Economics and Consumer Finance written by and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chapter 1: Recently enacted state laws that limit how much hospitals can charge uninsured patients provide a unique opportunity to study how financial incentives of healthcare providers affect the care they deliver. Using an event study framework, we find that these fair pricing laws lead to a seven to nine percent reduction in the average length of hospital stay for uninsured patients. Although the longer-term effects of these care reductions are uncertain, they are not accompanied by worsening of short-term measures of quality of care. Overall, our results provide strong evidence that hospitals actively alter their behavior in response to financial incentives, and are consistent with the laws promoting a shift towards more efficient care delivery. Chapter 2: The list price for an average unit of care is more than three times what a hospital will be paid for treating a typical patient, and different hospitals charge widely different prices for the same service. These facts may seem innocuous, but many uninsured and out-of-network patients do pay list price. This paper uncovers patterns in hospital list prices, and explores several potential explanations. We find that markups vary much more across hospitals than within, but geography and quality of care explain little of the overall variation. Further, large, urban, well-equipped, for-profit hospitals have the highest list prices. A quirk in the Medicare Outlier Payment formula appears to have contributed to rapid price increases prior to 2004. Overall, our findings are consistent with more financially-sophisticated and profit-motivated hospitals more aggressively pursuing revenue from uninsured and out-of-network patients. Chapter 3: Many researchers and policy makers worry that Americans are not saving adequately for retirement. However, it is difficult to agree upon what constitutes adequate savings. This paper compares wealth accumulation patterns of different cohorts of Americans born in the first half of the 20th century. This comparative standard frames the retirement prospects of future and recent retirees in terms of the documented retirement experiences of older generations. Contrary to common perception, I find that the wealth accumulation of Americans nearing and entering retirement today is very similar to that of older generations.

Download or read book Handbook of Consumer Finance Research written by Jing Jian Xiao and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-05-30 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This second edition of the authoritative resource summarizes the state of consumer finance research across disciplines for expert findings on—and strategies for enhancing—consumers’ economic health. New and revised chapters offer current research insights into familiar concepts (retirement saving, bankruptcy, marriage and finance) as well as the latest findings in emerging areas, including healthcare costs, online shopping, financial therapy, and the neuroscience behind buyer behavior. The expanded coverage also reviews economic challenges of diverse populations such as ethnic groups, youth, older adults, and entrepreneurs, reflecting the ubiquity of monetary issues and concerns. Underlying all chapters is the increasing importance of financial literacy training and other large-scale interventions in an era of economic transition. Among the topics covered: Consumer financial capability and well-being. Advancing financial literacy education using a framework for evaluation. Financial coaching: defining an emerging field. Consumer finance of low-income families. Financial parenting: promoting financial self-reliance of young consumers. Financial sustainability and personal finance education. Accessibly written for researchers and practitioners, this Second Edition of the Handbook of Consumer Finance Research will interest professionals involved in improving consumers’ fiscal competence. It also makes a worthwhile text for graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in economics, family and consumer studies, and related fields.