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Discussion Paper
Who pays for credit cards?
We model side payments in a competitive credit-card market. If competitive retailers charge a single (higher) price to cover the cost of accepting cards, banks must subsidize convenience users to prevent them from defecting to merchants who do not accept cards. The side payments will be financed by card users who roll over balances at interest if their subjective discount rates are high enough. Despite the feasibility of cross subsidies among cardholders, price discrimination without side payments is Pareto preferred because of the costliness of the card network--unless banks have other ...
Report
After the fall : rebuilding family balance sheets, rebuilding the economy
Essay from the 2012 Annual Report.
Journal Article
Does College Level the Playing Field?
The answer to this question may be ?No?; read about a research symposium and subsequent paper that explored the links between race and ethnicity, and education and wealth.
Journal Article
Why are Eighth District Populations Growing More Slowly than the Rest of the U.S.?
Our Center for Household Financial Stability evaluates the factors that led to recent population decline among the seven states that encompass the Eighth District.
Journal Article
Where housing markets lead in 2012, Eighth District economies are likely to follow
While some measures of Eighth District housing-market activity recently showed signs of life, it?s not clear yet if it is cause for cautious optimism in the economic outlook.
Journal Article
Economic focus: unlike prior decades, house-price changes in largest District cities are following national trends
Before the housing boom and bust, changes in local house values appeared to be a local phenomenon. Now, however, the District?s house-price changes are mirroring national patterns. Therefore, downward trends in other parts of the country may continue to negatively affect prices in the District.
Periodic Essay
The Demographics of Wealth - How Age, Education and Race Separate Thrivers from Strugglers in Today's Economy. Essay No. 1: Race, Ethnicity and Wealth
This first essay in the "Demographics of Wealth" series examines the connection between race or ethnicity and wealth accumulation over the past quarter-century. As with subsequent essays, this one is the result of an analysis of data collected between 1989 and 2013 through the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances. More than 40,000 heads of households were interviewed over those years.
Periodic Essay
The Demographics of Wealth - How Age, Education and Race Separate Thrivers from Strugglers in Today's Economy. Essay No. 3: Age, Birth Year and Wealth
Although there may be downsides to old age, those 62 and older can take heart in knowing that the odds are in favor of their being wealthier than younger people. And the gap has widened considerably over the past quarter-century?in favor of old people. That said, being old isn?t what it used to be. Baby boomers, who are now retiring in droves, are likely to be less well-off than their ?old? counterparts in the two previous generations. And it looks as if members of the next two generations ? Generation X and Generation Y (the millennials) ? might also end up less wealthy than the generation ...