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Marriage between credit cards and the Internet: Buying is just a click away!
Author(s) -
Basnet Hem C.,
DonouAdonsou Ficawoyi
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
review of financial economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.347
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1873-5924
pISSN - 1058-3300
DOI - 10.1002/rfe.1019
Subject(s) - credit card , the internet , debt , business , atm card , consistency (knowledge bases) , monetary economics , chargeback , internet access , credit card interest , economics , financial system , finance , computer science , payment , artificial intelligence , world wide web
This paper examines whether Internet access positively affects credit card balances. To that end, we compare the 2010 and 2013 Surveys of Consumer Finances, analyze the consistency of the results over time, and provide the rationale for any resulting differences. Using the censored techniques, our results indicate that Internet access has a positive effect on credit card balances, which suggests that consumers with Internet access are prone to higher balances compared to those without. The probability of carrying positive balances was larger in 2010 compared to 2013. Overall, the results suggest that, while the financial crisis might have contributed to higher balances in 2010, the economic recovery afterward seems to have eased the burden of credit card debt.