Why are credit card rates sticky?

Summary This paper investigates credit card rate stickiness using a screening model of consumer credit markets. In recent years, while the cost of funds has fallen, credit card rates have remained stubbornly high, spurring legislators to consider imposing interest rate ceilings on credit card rates. The model incorporates asymmetric information between consumers and banks, regarding consumers' future incomes. The unique equilibrium is one of two types: separating (in which low-risk consumers select a collateralized loan and high-risk consumers select a credit card loan), or pooling (in which both types of consumers choose credit card loans). I show that a change in the banks' cost of funds can have an ambiguous effect on the credit card rate, so that the credit card rate need not fall when the cost of funds does. Usury ceilings on credit card rates are detrimental to consumer welfare, so would be counter to their legislative intent.I thank George Mailath, Paul Calem, Gerhard Clemenz, Sally Davies, George Kanatas, Leonard Nakamura, Tony Santomero, Tony Saunders, participants in the 1990 Financial Management Association Meetings, and co-editor Michael Woodford for helpful comments.The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia or the Federal Reserve System.     

Introduction to Retail Payments: Mapping Out the Road Ahead

This article introduces four papers that were presented at a payments conference “Retail Payments: Mapping Out the Road Ahead,” which was held at De Nederlandsche Bank in Amsterdam in April of 2016. These papers focus on various behavioral aspects of consumers and merchants in their choice and acceptance of payment instruments and payment activity. End-user behavior has implications for how the retail payment landscape is likely to evolve and, therefore, will need to be considered by policymakers charged with overseeing the development of retail payments.     

Knowledge sharing,work–family conflict and supervisor support: investigating a three-way effect

Despite the importance of knowledge sharing in competitive environments, there is a paucity of studies examining the relationship between employee knowledge sharing and work–family conflict. Drawing on insights from conservation of resources theory, this study investigated how employees may reduce their knowledge-sharing behaviors when they experience resources lost from work interference with family (WIF) or family interference with work (FIW). Furthermore, the role of supervisor support in the relationship among WIF, FIW and knowledge sharing was explored as a valuable resource. Using data collected from 159 employees in South Korea, we found support that WIF is negatively related to knowledge sharing. In addition, the role of supervisor support in the relationship among WIF, FIW and knowledge sharing was the strongest when WIF is low and FIW is high, thus supporting the hypothesized a three-way effect. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Employee Turnover Intention in Travel Agencies: Analysis of Controllable and Uncontrollable Factors

High turnover rates have long been a problem and costly in many industries. Numerous studies have focused on the reasons for employee turnover; however, most have focused on the hospitality industry but scarce in travel agencies. Thus, this research aimed to examine the situation in travel agencies in Hong Kong. A sample of 200 frontline staff was selected by convenience sampling. The results indicated that five independent variables, namely, general job satisfaction, job hopping, job security, training opportunity and promotion opportunity are significantly related to turnover intention. The managerial implications of these findings and future research directions are also discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Firm Dynamics in Retail Trade: The Response of Canadian Retailers to Exchange Rate Shocks

We use comprehensive firm‐level data to estimate the responses of heterogeneous Canadian retail firms to real exchange rate movements. Our analysis focuses on a period characterized by large fluctuations in the Canadian dollar, providing an opportunity to quantify both intensive and extensive margin responses in retail industries to real exchange rate shocks and to examine how those responses differ across firms, locations, and sub‐industries. Our results indicate that a real Canadian currency appreciation significantly reduces a retailer's sales, employment, and profits. The strength of this negative effect is decreasing in the distance of a retailer from the US‐Canada border. We do not find evidence of a strong relationship between real exchange rate movements and the number of operating firms nor the probability of firm survival. These findings are consistent with the view that a real Canadian dollar appreciation increases cross‐border shopping by Canadians, resulting in a negative demand shock for Canadian retailers, and the dominant response by firms to such a shock is through the intensive margin.     

Large real exchange rate movements, firm dynamics, and productivity growth

Abstract.  This paper examines the influence of large real exchange rate movements on firm turnover and production scale, and the contribution of these decisions to productivity growth. Our theoretical model predicts that home currency appreciations cause firm closure and reduce surviving firms' exports while boosting domestic sales. The net effect on sales and productivity therefore depends on changes in domestic sales and exports. Taiwanese firm-level data are used to test these predictions. The results show that real currency appreciations lead to scale expansion of surviving firms which in turn raises productivity. Our findings suggest the existence of a significant scale effect.     

The impact of Clean Spark Spread expectations on storage hydropower generation

Decisions in Economics and Finance - Storage hydropower generation plays a crucial role in the electric power system and energy transition because it is the most widespread power generation with...     

Are scale economies in banking elusive or illusive?: Evidence obtained by incorporating capital structure and risk-taking into models of bank production

This paper explores how to incorporate banks' capital structure and risk-taking into models of production. In doing so, the paper bridges the gulf between (1) the banking literature that studies moral hazard effects of bank regulation without considering the underlying microeconomics of production and (2) the literature that uses dual profit and cost functions to study the microeconomics of bank production without explicitly considering how banks' production decisions influence their riskiness.Various production models that differ in how they account for capital structure and in the objectives they impute to bank managers – cost minimization versus value maximization – are estimated using U.S. data on highest-level bank holding companies. Modeling the bank's objective as value maximization conveniently incorporates both market-priced risk and expected cash flow into managers' ranking and choice of production plans.Estimated scale economies are found to depend critically on how banks' capital structure and risk-taking are modeled. In particular, when equity capital, in addition to debt, is included in the production model and cost is computed from the value-maximizing expansion path rather than the cost-minimizing path, banks are found to have large scale economies that increase with size. Moreover, better diversification is associated with larger scale economies while increased risk-taking and inefficient risk-taking are associated with smaller scale economies.     

The impact of real exchange rate movements on firm performance: A case study of Taiwanese manufacturing firms

Taiwan experienced large depreciations of its currency, the New Taiwan (NT) dollar, in the late 1990s. The largest real depreciation, 13 per cent, occurred during the East Asian Financial Crisis. Since Taiwan was subjected neither to the economic turmoil of the crisis itself nor to the subsequent reforms, its experience provides a good opportunity for studying the effects of exchange rate changes on firm performance. This paper empirically examines the exchange rate effects on firm exports, domestic sales, total sales, value-added and productivity, by using data on firms listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange merged with customs trade data covering the period of 1992–2000. Our findings indicate that the real depreciation of the NT dollar led to an increase in exports, domestic sales, total sales, value-added, and productivity. In addition, we find that the productivity improvement induced by real currency depreciation may be a result of firm scale expansion.