Because of limitations in survey-based measures of household consumption, a growing literature uses an alternative measure of consumer expenditures commonly referred to as "imputed consumption." This approach typically utilizes annual snapshots of household income and wealth from administrative...

Standard economic theory says that unsecured, high-interest, short-term debt -- such as borrowing via credit cards and bank overdraft facilities -- helps individuals smooth consumption in the event of transitory income shocks. This paper shows that -- on average -- individuals do not use such...

Using high-frequency transaction-level income, spending, balances, and credit limits data from an online financial service, we show that many consumers fail to stick to their self-set debt paydown plans and argue that this behavior is best explained by a model of present bias. Theoretically, we...

Because of limitations in survey-based measures of household consumption, a growing literature uses an alternative measure of consumption commonly referred to as `imputed consumption'. This approach utilizes annual snapshots of household income and wealth from administrative tax registries to...

Standard economic theory says that unsecured, high-interest, short-term debt — such as borrowing via credit cards and bank overdraft facilities — helps individuals smooth consumption in the event of transitory income shocks. This paper shows that — on average — individuals do not use...

Because of limitations in survey-based measures of household consumption, a growing literature uses an alternative measure of consumer expenditures commonly referred to as "imputed consumption." This approach typically utilizes annual snapshots of household income and wealth from administrative...

Using high-frequency transaction-level income, spending, balances, and credit limits data from an online financial service, we show that many consumers fail to stick to their self-set debt paydown plans and argue that this behavior is best explained by a model of present bias. Theoretically, we...