1. Credit Card Purchasing and Static Consumer Behavior Theory Credit Card Purchasing and Static Consumer Behavior Theory

Thomas L. Sporleder, Robert R. Wilson

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Vol. 56, No. 1 (Feb., 1974), pp. 129-134

Abstract：

This article treats the theoretical consequences of consumer credit card use . A delayed

repayment model provides consumer optimization and indifference conditions between cash

and credit card transactions. Under realistic interest and opportunity cost rates, consumers

can rationally let a balance revolve about 39 percent of the time and maintain indifference

over time.

Key words: credit; consumer behavior; marketing.

2. Credit Cards and Interest Rates: Theory and Institutional Factors

Robert F. Stauffer

Journal of Post Keynesian Economics, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Winter, 2003-2004), pp. 289-301

Published by: M.E. Sharpe, Inc.

3 The Effect of Credit on Spending Decisions: The Role of the Credit Limit and Credibility

Dilip Soman and Amar Cheema

Marketing Science, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Winter, 2002), pp. 32-53

Published by: INFORMS

Abstract

The objective of the present research is to study consumer

decisions to utilize a line of credit. The life-cycle hypothesis

f

rom economics argues that consumers should intertemporally

reallocate their incomes over their life stream to maximize

lifetime utility. One form of intertemporal allocation is

to use past income (in the form of savings) in the future. A

second form is the use of future income in the present. This

can only be done if consumers have access to a temporary

pool of money that they can draw from and replenish in the

future-a function performed by consumer credit. However,

our research reinforces prior findings that consumers are

unable to correctly value their future incomes, and that they

lack the cognitive capability to solve the intertemporal optimization

problem required by the life-cycle hypothesis. Instead,

we argue that consumers use information such as the

credit limit as a signal of their future earnings potential.

Specifically, if consumers have access to large amounts of

credit, they are likely to infer that their lifetime income will

be high and hence their willingness to use credit (and their

spending) will also be high. Conversely, consumers who are

granted lower amounts of credit are likely to infer that their

lifetime income will be low and hence their spending will

be lower.

However, based on research in the area of ??consumer skepticism

and inference making, we also argue for a moderating

role of the credibility associated with the credit limit.

Specifically, we argue that the above effect of credit availability

would be particularly strong for consumers who believe

that the credit limit credibly signals their future earnings

potential (i.e., a naive consumer who has limited

experience with consumer credit). However, as consumers

gain experience with credit, they start discounting credit

availability as a predictor of their future and start questioning

the validity of the process used to set the credit limit.

Hence, with experience the effect of credit limit on the willingness

to use credit should be attenuated.

We test these predictions in five separate studies. In the

first experimental study, we manipulate credit limit and

credibility and pose subjects with a hypothetical purchase

opportunity. Consistent with our prediction, credit limit impacted

the propensity to spend, but only when the credibility

was high. In the second experimental study, we rep-

MARKETING SCIENCE ? 2002 INFORMS

Vol. 21, No. 1, Winter 2002, pp. 32-53

licate these findings even when subjects were given

information about their expected future salaries, and also

show that the credit limit influences their exp

ectation of future

earnings potential. In the third study, we show that the

mere availability (and increase) of current liquidity cannot

explain our findings. In the fourth study, we conduct a survey

of consumers in which we measure a number of demographic

characteristics and also ask them for their propensity

to spend in a given purchase situation. In the fifth

study we use the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) dataset,

a triennial survey of U.S. families that is designed to

provide detailed information on the use of financial services,

spending behaviors, and selected demographic characteristics.

Results from both studies 4 and 5 provide further support

for our proposed framework-credit limits influence

spending to a greater extent for consumers with lower credibility:

younger consumers and less-educated consumers.

Across all studies we achieved triangulation by using a variety

of approaches (surveys and experiments), subjects

types (young students and older consumers), nature of predictor

variables (manipulated and measured), dependent

measures (purchase likelihood, credit card balance, new

charges), and methods of analysis (ANOVA and regression),

and consistently found that increasing credit limits on a

credit card increases spending, especiall

y when the credibility

of the limit is high.

This paper joins a growing body of literature in marketing

and behavioral decision theory that goes beyond the traditional

Domains of inquiry (e.g., product choice, effects of

marketing mix variables) and focuses on consumer decisions

relating to the appropriate use of income to finance consumption.

Our framework differs from prior research on the

effect of payment mechanisms on spending in two significant

ways. First, we are interested in the effects of the availability

of credit on spending, and not necessarily in the effect

of the transaction format that is associated with each

payment mechanism. Second, while prior research has studied

the point-of-purchase and historic (i.e., prepurchase) effects

of credit, the present research is concerned with the

availability of credit in the future. Specifically, our framework

is invariant to the current and prior usage of credit by

the consumer.

(Consumer Credit; Credit Cards; Intertemporal Choice; Mental

Accounting; Self-Control)

Squeak if not enough