Search Results
Journal Article
Changes in the use of electronic means of payment: 1995-2010
This article updates the information published in an article by Loretta Mester in the March/April 2000 Business Review and last updated in the Third Quarter 2009 issue.
Speech
Remarks for the Session: “Increasing Diversity in Economics: From Students to Professors”
I thank Stacy Dickert-Conlin for the opportunity to discuss two papers in this session: “Promoting Female Interest in Economics: Limits to Nudges,” by Todd Pugatch and Elizabeth Schroeder (2020), and “Can Positive Feedback Increase Female and Minority Undergraduates into Economics?” by Kelly Bedard, Jacquie Dodd, and Shelly Lundberg (2020). The papers I am discussing today are both systematic investigations of whether particular types of nudges can interest more women and minorities to go into the field of economics.
Speech
Fintech, Bigtech, and Financial Inclusion
Since the beginning of this conference series, the discussions have consistently been very topical, and the agenda for the next two days does not disappoint on that score. The conference will cover many of the hot issues confronting practitioners, academics, and policymakers as financial system innovation proceeds at a rapid pace. Today I will discuss the implications of digitalization for financial inclusion and some steps that need to be taken to ensure that digitalization helps to foster inclusion rather than promote exclusion. The views I will present today are my own and not necessarily ...
Working Paper
Switching costs and adverse selection in the market for credit cards: new evidence
To explain persistence of credit card interest rates at relatively high levels, Calem and Mester (AER, 1995) argued that informational barriers create switching costs for high-balance customers. As evidence, using data from the 1989 Survey of Consumer Finances, they showed that these households were more likely to be rejected when applying for new credit. In this paper, they revisit the question using the 1998 and 2001 SCF. Further, they use new information on card interest rates to test for pricing effects consistent with information-based switching costs. The authors find that informational ...
Journal Article
Economic growth and development: perspectives for policy makers
Loretta Mester summarizes the discussion at the 2006 Philadelphia Fed Policy Forum
Speech
Five Points About Monetary Policy and Financial Stability (06-04-2016) Sveriges Riksbank Conference on Rethinking the Central Bank’s Mandate, Stockholm, Sweden
Since the 2008 global financial crisis and the Great Recession that followed, economists and policymakers have been evaluating the factors that led to the crisis, assessing what could have been done to prevent, or at least limit, the damage, and considering what can and should be done to reduce the probability and impact of future disruptions to financial stability. That this is a very broad topic can easily be seen by looking at the agendas of this and previous years? conferences organized by the Riksbank. Today I will focus my remarks on the nexus between monetary policy and financial ...
Working Paper
Debt covenants and renegotiation
Speech
Forward Guidance and Communications in U.S. Monetary Policy
Good evening and thank you very much for the invitation to speak in the Imperial Business Insights Series. I have learned that this successful series is now in its third year and it has brought speakers to the podium to discuss a wide range of topics in the major themes of finance, innovation, and entrepreneurship. Tonight I will speak about forward guidance and monetary policy communications. I think it is clear that this topic is related to finance, but I submit that it is also related to the two other themes of your series: innovation and entrepreneurship. Since the onset of the 2008 ...