Using detailed micro data, we document that households often use" stimulus" checks to pay
down debt, especially those with low net wealth-to-income ratios. To rationalize these …

We measure the distribution of welfare losses from non-competitive behaviour in the US
credit card industry during the 1970s and 1980s. The early credit card industry was …

We introduce frictional financial intermediation into a HANK model. Households are subject
to idiosyncratic and aggregate risk and smooth consumption through savings and consumer …

This study documents the credit outcomes of older adults immediately before and after the
onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. On average, older adults experienced …

Policymakers regularly discuss enacting debt relief programs whose apparent goals are to
redistribute towards debtors and/or to stabilize the economy. We examine the …

Consumer credit spreads significantly impact consumption and asset dynamics, affecting
indebted households' spending behavior and the income sensitivity of consumption …

After decades of consistent growth, US revolving credit declined drastically post 2009. We
study the Ability to Pay provision of the Credit CARD Act of 2009, a policy that restricts credit …

How do large, national credit card lenders affect interest rates, the size of the credit card
market, and household welfare? We answer this question by developing a novel theory in …

We study, theoretically and in a quantitative model, the determinants of lender profits in the
cross-section of households. We argue that the empirical pattern of high profit margins for …

Economists estimate that a minority of eligible US workers claim unemployment insurance in
the event of job loss, and that this follows a decades-long decline in UI claiming (Lachowska …