Publications [#385339] of Ryan C. McDevitt

Journal Articles

1. McDevitt, RC; Sojourner, A, The Need for Speed: Demand, Regulation, and Welfare on the Margin of Alternative Financial Services, Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 107 no. 5 (September, 2025), pp. 1439-1447 [doi]
   (last updated on 2026/01/07)

   Abstract:
   We use a nonlinear reduction in a bank’s check-cashing fees and variation in regulated check-clearing times to identify the elasticity of demand for cashing checks rather than depositing them. We find that an extra day of check-clearing time makes account holders 65.5% more likely to cash a check than deposit it, which implies they are willing to pay $11.17 per day for faster access to their funds—an effective annualized discount rate of 11,054% for the average check. We use this elasticity to evaluate recent proposals that mandate faster check-clearing times.