IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/iecrev/v66y2025i1p393-451.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Unprecedented Fall In U.S. Revolving Credit

Author

Listed:
  • Gajendran Raveendranathan
  • Georgios Stefanidis

Abstract

After decades of consistent growth, U.S. revolving credit declined drastically post 2009. We study the Ability to Pay provision of the Credit CARD Act of 2009, a policy that restricts credit card limits, as a contributing factor. Extending a model of revolving credit lines, we find that the policy accounts for 54–60% of the decline in revolving credit. Furthermore, the policy accounts for lower utilization rates despite tighter credit limits and higher spreads despite lower default risk. The policy's goal of consumer protection is achieved for a few consumers with time‐inconsistent preferences; most individuals are hurt.

Suggested Citation

  • Gajendran Raveendranathan & Georgios Stefanidis, 2025. "The Unprecedented Fall In U.S. Revolving Credit," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 66(1), pages 393-451, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:iecrev:v:66:y:2025:i:1:p:393-451
    DOI: 10.1111/iere.12727
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/iere.12727
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/iere.12727?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E21 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Consumption; Saving; Wealth
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E65 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Studies of Particular Policy Episodes
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G50 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:iecrev:v:66:y:2025:i:1:p:393-451. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deupaus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.