In Search of a Risk‐Free Asset: Search Costs and Sticky Deposit Rates
研究了消费者搜索成本对存款定价的影响，发现高搜索成本（尤其是老年和金融素养低的家庭）赋予银行垄断力量，导致低且不对称的利率传导，并揭示了银行进入、存款利率与消费者剩余之间的非单调关系。
Abstract I examine the role of costly consumer search for the pricing of deposits. Estimates of a model of heterogeneous search cost households reveal a large fraction of high‐search‐cost depositors composed of elderly and less financially sophisticated households. Those households grant banks significant monopoly power that results in low and asymmetric interest rate pass‐through. The predictions of the estimated model are consistent with responses in the Survey of Consumer Finances to questions related to financial sophistication, search for investment return, and deposit allocations across multiple bank accounts. The estimated model also reveals a nonmonotone relationship between bank entry, deposit rates, and consumer surplus.