A brief postwar history of US consumer finance
By: Andrea Ryan, Gunnar Trumbull, Peter Tufano
Contributors: Trumbull, Gunnar; Tufano, Peter; Harvard Business School
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 11-058; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 11-058.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2010
Place of publication: [Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 53
Description: This article describes the consumer finance sector in the US since World War II. We first define the sector in terms of the functions delivered by firms (payments, savings/investing, borrowing, managing risk, and providing advice.) We provide time series evidence on major trends in consumption, savings, and borrowing. Examining consumer decisions, changes in regulation, and business practices, we identify four major themes that characterize the sector: (a) innovation that increased the choices available to consumer; (b) enhanced access in the form of broadening participation of consumers in financial activities, (c) do-it-yourself consumer finance, which allowed and forced consumers to take greater responsibility for their own financial lives, and (d) the resultant increase in household risk taking.
Notes: "December 2010"--Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references.