Consumer Finance
Our Consumer Finance Institute researches how people earn, spend, save, and invest, as well as how credit markets and payment systems affect the economy. Our goal is to foster a healthy consumer sector, a stable financial system, and a resilient regional and national economy.
Working Paper
The Racial Wealth Gap, Financial Aid, and College Access
WP 22-32 – We examine how the racial wealth gap interacts with financial aid in American higher education to generate a disparate impact on college access and outcomes.
A Map of Racially Restrictive Covenants in the City of Philadelphia
17 Jun ’22
An interactive look at the impact of discriminatory real estate practices on the people and economy of Philadelphia.
Consumer Finance
What is the Consumer Finance Institute?
We study credit and payment markets to understand how they affect consumers and the economy.
Working Paper
Housing Wealth and Consumption: The Role of Heterogeneous Credit Constraints
WP 22-34 – House price declines following the collapse of the housing bubble were associated with a drop in household consumption. We find that more than two-thirds of this is due to financial constraints, rather than a decline in housing wealth.
Working Paper
Scarcity and Intertemporal Choice
WP 22-27 – Nearly everyone feels that their financial resources are inadequate for their needs at some point or another. Existing research largely suggests that this perceived scarcity of resources prevents people from considering the future and leads them to prefer obtaining smaller, sooner amounts of resources rather than larger, later amounts of resources.
Event
Oct
26-27
2022
The Fourth Workshop on Payments, Lending, and Innovations in Consumer Finance
Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
Article
Q&A: Larry Santucci on Philadelphia's Racially Restrictive Covenants and Their Lasting Effects
13 Jul ’22
The Bank’s Advisor and Research Fellow in the Consumer Finance Institute explores racially restrictive covenants in the city of Philadelphia and their lasting effects.
Working Paper
Reducing Strategic Default in a Financial Crisis
WP 21-36/R – We document that increasing penalties for default reduces strategic default in financial crises by exploiting the 2009 changes to Canadian consumer insolvency regulations.
COVID-19
COVID-19 and the Philadelphia Fed
Get the Philadelphia Fed’s latest information, resources, and research on the coronavirus pandemic's impact on businesses, households, and communities.
Consumer Finance
Consumer Finance Institute Visiting Scholars
We regularly invite outside experts in consumer finance and payments to conduct independent research, collaborate with our staff economists and analysts, and participate in our events.
Working Paper
Health Insurance and Young Adult Financial Distress
WP 19-54/R – We study how health-insurance eligibility affects financial distress for young adults using the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) dependent coverage mandate — the part of the ACA that requires private health-insurance plans to cover individuals up to their 26th birthday.