This research responds to the call for more research on the conceptualization and measurement of socio-economic status that moves beyond merely considering education, occupation and income variables. Credit card usage and credit card debt is a growing phenomenon in developed countries. Using data from a 1997 representative sample of more than 900 adults in Ohio, we explored how credit card debt...

We study the effect of government encouraged or mandated interchange fee ceilings on consumer and merchant adoption and usage of payment cards in an economy where card acceptance is far from complete. If the pre-regulatory interchange fee was optimal, any change in the interchange fee would result in lower aggregate welfare for consumers, merchants, and banks. Merchant acceptance of debit and c...

Payment card associations Visa and MasterCard offer both debit and credit cards and, until recently, used to engage in a tie-in on the merchant side through the so-called honorall-cards (HAC) rule. This rule has come under attack on the grounds that the credit and debit card markets are separate markets and that the associations lever their market power in the “credit card market” to exclude on...