Promises & Pitfalls:
As Consumer Finance Options Multiply, Who Is Being Served and at What Cost?

A Federal Reserve System Community Affairs Research Conference
Washington, D.C.
April 7-8, 2005

This Web site contains the papers from a conference organized by the Community Affairs Officers of the Federal Reserve System. Papers included in the Web site are to be considered working papers. They are reproduced here to make them available to scholars and practitioners with a serious interest in the topics presented. Many of the papers are in preliminary form and will be submitted for publication elsewhere. The works here should be cited as working papers and considered preliminary drafts of any subsequent publication. Although all papers have been screened for relevance to the subject matter of the conference, they have not been subjected to a rigorous refereeing process nor edited for form or content by the Federal Reserve.

Session 1
Session 2
Session 3
Session 4

Session Two: Consumer Behavior

Moderator
Michael Barr, University of Michigan Remarks (PDF,43KB)

A Financial Services Survey of Low- and Moderate-Income Households (PDF,237KB)
Ellen Seidman, ShoreBank Advisory Services
Moez Hababou and Jennifer Kramer, MetroEdge
Presentation (PDF,24KB)

Householder Response to the Earned Income Tax Credit: Path of Sustenance or Road to Asset Building (PDF,498KB)
Sherrie L.W. Rhine, Sabrina Su and Yazmin Osaki, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Steven Y. Lee, FoodChange
Presentation (PDF,50KB)

Borrowing During Unemployment: Unsecured Debt as a Safety Net (PDF,308KB)
James X. Sullivan, University of Notre Dame
Presentation (PDF,27KB)

Negative Effects of Personal Bankruptcy for Homeowners: Lost Homes and Reduced Credit Access (PDF,555KB)
Cheryl Long, Colgate University
Presentation (PDF,47KB)

Discussants
John Caskey, Swarthmore College Remarks (PDF,23KB)
Wenli Li, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia Remarks (PDF,15KB)
Presentation (PDF,32KB)

Moderator
Rick Lang, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

A Re-Examination of the Role of "Relationships" in the Loan Granting Process (PDF,207KB)
Sugato Chakravarty and Tansel Yilmazer, Purdue University
Presentation (PDF,52KB)

Observing Unobservables: Identifying Information Asymmetries with a Consumer-Credit Field Experiment (PDF,345KB)
Dean Karlan, Princeton University
Jonathan Zinman, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Presentation (PDF,17KB)

Discussant
Ed Nosal, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Remarks (PDF,15KB)
Presentation (PDF,35KB)