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A model of money and credit, with application to the credit card debt puzzle

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Author Info
Irina A. Telyukova
Randall Wright

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Abstract

Many individuals simultaneously have significant credit card debt and money in the bank. The credit card debt puzzle is: given high interest rates on credit cards and low rates on bank accounts, why not pay down debt? While some economists go to elaborate lengths to explain this, we argue it is a special case of the rate-of-return-dominance puzzle from monetary economics. We extend standard monetary theory to incorporate consumer debt, which is interesting in its own right since developing models where money and credit coexist is a long-standing challenge. Our model is quite tractable—e.g., it readily yields nice existence and characterization results—and helps puts into context recent discussions of consumer debt.

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Paper provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland in its series Working Paper with number 0711.

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Date of creation: 2007
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedcwp:0711

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Keywords: Credit cards Consumer credit

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Zhu, Tao, 2003. "Existence of a monetary steady state in a matching model: indivisible money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 307-324, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  2. Aleksander Berentsen & Gabriele Camera & Christopher Waller, . "Money, Credit and Banking," IEW - Working Papers iewwp219, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
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  3. Lagos, Ricardo & Wright, Randall, 2003. "Dynamics, cycles, and sunspot equilibria in 'genuinely dynamic, fundamentally disaggregative' models of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 109(2), pages 156-171, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  4. Michael Halisassos & Michael Reiter, 2005. "Credit Card Debt Puzzles," CFS Working Paper Series 2005/26, Center for Financial Studies. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Carol C. Bertaut & Michael Haliassos, 2001. "Debt Revolvers for Self Control," University of Cyprus Working Papers in Economics 0208, University of Cyprus Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  6. Satyajit Chatterjee & Dean Corbae & Makoto Nakajima & Jose-Victor Rios-Rull, 2007. "A quantitative theory of unsecured consumer credit with risk of default," Working Papers 07-16, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Shi, Shouyong, 1996. "Credit and Money in a Search Model with Divisible Commodities," Review of Economic Studies, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 63(4), pages 627-52, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. D. Aliprantis, C. & Camera, G. & Puzzello, D., 2007. "Anonymous markets and monetary trading," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(7), pages 1905-1928, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Ping He & Lixin Huang & Randall Wright, 2005. "Money And Banking In Search Equilibrium," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 46(2), pages 637-670, 05. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Wallace, Neil, 2001. "Whither Monetary Economics?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 42(4), pages 847-69, November.
  11. Edward J. Green & Ruilin Zhou, 2000. "Dynamic monetary equilibrium in a random-matching economy," Working Paper Series WP-00-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. [Downloadable!]
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  12. Camera, G. & Corbae, D., 1998. "Money and Price Dispersion," Working Papers 98-03, University of Iowa, Department of Economics.
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  13. Edward J. Green & Ruilin Zhou, . "A Rudimentary Model of Search with Divisible Money and Prices," Penn CARESS Working Papers 2772f94306e08ef7292945588, UCLA Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
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  14. Shi Shougong, 1995. "Money and Prices: A Model of Search and Bargaining," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 467-496, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  15. Trejos, Alberto & Wright, Randall, 1995. "Search, Bargaining, Money, and Prices," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(1), pages 118-41, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Andreas Lehnert & Dean M. Maki, 2002. "Consumption, debt and portfolio choice: testing the effect of bankruptcy law," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2002-14, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  17. David Laibson & Andrea Repetto & Jeremy Tobacman, 2000. "A Debt Puzzle," Documentos de Trabajo 80, Centro de Economía Aplicada, Universidad de Chile. [Downloadable!]
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    • David Laibson & Andrea Repetto & Jeremy Tobacman, 2000. "A Debt Puzzle," NBER Working Papers 7879, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Christopher Waller & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2005. "Bargaining in Monetary Economies," 2005 Meeting Papers 55, Society for Economic Dynamics. [Downloadable!]
  19. Kocherlakota, Narayana R., 1998. "Money Is Memory," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 232-251, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  20. Ricardo Lagos & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2006. "Money and capital as competing media of exchange," Working Paper 0608, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
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  21. Satyajit Chatterjee & Dean Corbae & Jose-Victor Rios-Rull, 2006. "Finite-Life, Private-Information Theory of Unsecured Debt," 2006 Meeting Papers 781, Society for Economic Dynamics. [Downloadable!]
  22. David B. Gross & Nicholas S. Souleles, 2002. "Do Liquidity Constraints And Interest Rates Matter For Consumer Behavior? Evidence From Credit Card Data," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 117(1), pages 149-185, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. Miguel Molico, 2006. "The Distribution Of Money And Prices In Search Equilibrium," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 47(3), pages 701-722, 08. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  24. Ricardo Lagos, 2006. "Asset prices and liquidity in an exchange economy," Staff Report 373, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. [Downloadable!]
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  25. Zhou, Ruilin, 1999. "Individual and Aggregate Real Balances in a Random-Matching Model," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 40(4), pages 1009-38, November.
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  26. Ricardo Lagos and Randall Wright, 2005. "A Unified Framework for Monetary Theory and Policy Analysis," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 113(3), pages 463-484, June.
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  27. Guillaume Rocheteau & Randall Wright, 2003. "Money in Search Equilibrium, in Competitive Equilibrium, and in Competitive Search Equilibrium," PIER Working Paper Archive 03-031, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania. [Downloadable!]
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Antoine Martin & Michael Orlando & David Skeie, 2008. "Payment networks in a search model of money," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 11(1), pages 104-132, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  2. Jonathan Chiu & Miguel Molico, 2008. "Uncertainty, Inflation, and Welfare," Working Papers 08-13, Bank of Canada. [Downloadable!]
  3. Guillaume Rocheteau & Peter Rupert & Karl Shell & Randall Wright, 2005. "General equilibrium with nonconvexities, sunspots, and money," Working Paper 0513, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Cyril Monnet & William Roberds, 2006. "Credit and the no-surcharge rule," Working Paper 2006-25, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. [Downloadable!]
  5. Charles Sprenger & Joanna Stavins, 2008. "Credit card debt and payment use," Working Papers 08-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. [Downloadable!]
  6. Aleksander Berentsen & Cyril Monnet, 2007. "Monetary Policy in a Channel System," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo GmbH. [Downloadable!]
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  7. Aleksander Berentsen & Christopher Waller, 2008. "Outside Versus Inside Bonds," IEW - Working Papers iewwp372, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - IEW. [Downloadable!]
  8. Telyukova, Irina A., 2007. "Household Need for Liquidity and the Credit Card Debt Puzzle," MPRA Paper 6674, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  9. Guillaume Rocheteau, 2008. "Money and competing assets under private information," Working Paper 0802, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. [Downloadable!]
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