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A Puzzle of Card Payment Pricing: Why Are Merchants Still Accepting Card Payments?

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Author Info
Fumiko Hayashi () (Payments System Research Department, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City)
Abstract

This paper presents models that explain why merchants accept payment cards even when the fees they face exceed the transactional benefits they receive from a card transaction. The prevalent assumption - merchants accept cards only when they earn positive net transactional benefits - holds only for a monopoly merchant who faces an inelastic consumer demand. The paper also explores possible explanations for the recent gradual increases in merchant fees in the United States. Three possible explanations are 1) inflexible product price setting by merchants, 2) decreases (increases) in cardholder fees (rebates), and 3) increases in cardholding-customer proportion in a given industry.

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Publisher Info
Article provided by Concept Economics in its journal Review of Network Economics.

Volume (Year): 5 (2006)
Issue (Month): 1 (March)
Pages: 144-174
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Handle: RePEc:rne:rneart:v:5:y:2006:i:1:p:144-174

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Related research
Keywords: Credit cards; merchants; interchange fees;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Wilko Bolt & Alexander F. Tieman, 2003. "Pricing Debit Card Payment Services: An IO Approach," IMF Working Papers 03/202, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Rochet, Jean-Charles & Tirole, Jean, 2003. "Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets," IDEI Working Papers 152, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Julian Wright, 2004. "The Determinants of Optimal Interchange Fees in Payment Systems," Journal of Industrial Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 52(1), pages 1-26, 03. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  4. Sujit Chakravorti & Roberto Roson, 2006. "Platform Competition in Two-Sided Markets: The Case of Payment Networks," Review of Network Economics, Concept Economics, vol. 5(1), pages 118-143, March. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  5. Julio J. Rotemberg, 2004. "Fair Pricing," NBER Working Papers 10915, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Schmalensee, Richard, 2002. "Payment Systems and Interchange Fees," Journal of Industrial Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(2), pages 103-22, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  7. Fumiko Hayashi & Elizabeth Klee, 2003. "Technology Adoption and Consumer Payments: Evidence from Survey Data," Review of Network Economics, Concept Economics, vol. 2(2), pages 175-190, June. [Downloadable!]
  8. W. Bolt, 2003. "Retail Payments in the Netherlands: some Facts and Some Theory," WO Research Memoranda (discontinued) 722, Netherlands Central Bank, Research Department. [Downloadable!]
  9. Eyal Baharad & Benjamin Eden, 2003. "Price Rigidity and Price Dispersion: Evidence from Micro Data," Working Papers 0321, Department of Economics, Vanderbilt University. [Downloadable!]
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  10. Kashyap, Anil K, 1995. "Sticky Prices: New Evidence from Retail Catalogs," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 110(1), pages 245-74, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Jean-Charles Rochet & Jean Tirole, 2002. "Cooperation Among Competitors: Some Economics Of Payment Card Associations," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 33(4), pages 549-570, Winter.
  12. Graeme Guthrie & Julian Wright, 2003. "Competing Payment Schemes," Departmental Working Papers wp0311, National University of Singapore, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  13. Kahneman, Daniel & Knetsch, Jack L & Thaler, Richard, 1986. "Fairness as a Constraint on Profit Seeking: Entitlements in the Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 728-41, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Wright, Julian, 2003. "Optimal card payment systems," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 587-612, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Carlton, Dennis W, 1986. "The Rigidity of Prices," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 637-58, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  16. Marius Schwartz & Daniel R. Vincent, 2006. "The No Surcharge Rule and Card User Rebates: Vertical Control by a Payment Network," Review of Network Economics, Concept Economics, vol. 5(1), pages 72-102, March. [Downloadable!]
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Fumiko Hayashi, 2006. "Pricing and welfare implications of payment card network competition," Payments System Research Working Paper PSR WP 06-03, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. [Downloadable!]
  2. Fumiko Hayashi, 2008. "The economics of payment card fee structure: what is the optimal balance between merchant fee and payment card rewards?," Research Working Paper RWP 08-06, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. [Downloadable!]
  3. Robin A. Prager & Mark D. Manuszak & Elizabeth K. Kiser & Ron Borzekowski, 2009. "Interchange fees and payment card networks: economics, industry developments, and policy issues," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2009-23, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
  4. Fumiko Hayashi, 2008. "The economics of payment card fee structure: policy considerations of payment card rewards," Research Working Paper RWP 08-08, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. [Downloadable!]
  5. James McAndrews & Zhu Wang, 2008. "The economics of two-sided payment card markets: pricing, adoption and usage," Research Working Paper RWP 08-12, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. [Downloadable!]
  6. Fumiko Hayashi, 2008. "The economics of payment card fee structure: what drives payment card rewards?," Research Working Paper RWP 08-07, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. [Downloadable!]
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This page was last updated on 2009-11-16.

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