The Regulation of Consumer Financial Products: An Introductory Essay with Four Case Studies
Abstract
The recent financial crisis has led many to question how well businesses deliver consumer financial services and how well regulatory institutions address problems in consumer financial markets. In response, the Obama administration proposed a new agency to oversee consumer financial services, and the recently enacted Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act embraced the Administration’s proposal by creating the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection. Other regulatory reforms have been advanced, and in some cases adopted, in recent years, at both the federal and state level. In this paper, we provide an overview of consumer financial markets, detailing the purposes they serve, the extent to which they suffer from market failures or other deficiencies, and the structure of our current system of regulation. To illustrate our analytical framework, we present case studies on retirement savings, residential mortgages, payday lending, and mutual funds. We conclude with a series of observations on the limits of government intervention, suggestions about how to measure whether government intervention is successful, and potentially fruitful lines of future research and data collection.Download Info
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Paper provided by Regulation2point0 in its series Working paper with number 631.Length:
Date of creation: Sep 2010
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Handle: RePEc:reg:wpaper:631
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Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Campbell, John Y. & Jackson, Howell E. & Madrian, Brigitte C. & Tufano, Peter, 2010. "The Regulation of Consumer Financial Products: An Introductory Essay with Four Case Studies," Working Paper Series rwp10-040, Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government.
- Cambpbell, John Y. & Jackson, Howell Edmunds & Madrian, Brigitte & Tufano, Peter, 2010. "The Regulation of Consumer Financial Products: An Introductory Essay with Four Case Studies," Scholarly Articles 4450128, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
- D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Economics; Underlying Principles
- D10 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - General
- D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Personal Finance
- D18 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Protection
- D91 - Microeconomics - - Intertemporal Choice and Growth - - - Intertemporal Consumer Choice; Life Cycle Models and Saving
- G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
- G - Financial Economics
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2010-12-11 (All new papers)
- NEP-REG-2010-12-11 (Regulation)
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Citations
Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Anne-Sophie Bergerès & Philippe d'Astous & Georges Dionne, 2011. "Is there Any Dependence Between Consumer Credit Line Utilization and Default Probability on a Term Loan? Evidence from Bank-Level Data," Cahiers de recherche 1119, CIRPEE.
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