HE relationship of finance charges to T terms of consumer installment contracts (such as loan size and maturity) and to regional variables has been well established in the literature [8] [12]. Our study demonstrates the importance of the characteristics of the borrower, particularly his overall wealth position, in determining the cost of credit. Although this study examines the determinants of automobile finance rates, the general results should be applicable to the financing of other consumer durables.

The purpose of this paper is to present new evidence on employer search to fill a position. The study is based on data for recent hires collected in the 1980 Employer Opportunity Pilot Project (EOPP) survey of employers. The paper investigates the effect of factors such as training, employer size, and labor market conditions on employer search. Employer search is measured by the number of applicants interviewed prior to an employment offer and the average number of hours spent by an employer recruiting, screening, and interviewing per applicant interviewed. The paper also documents the relationship between employer search and wages.

This paper addresses two questions related to the ongoing consolidation of the US banking industry and its effect on small firm financing. First, are conventional measures of market structure (e.g. geographic market size and deposit concentration) related to bank competition for small firm financial business? Second, does an increase in bank competition produce an improvement in bank services irrespective of market structure? To answer these questions we use a survey of small firm owners that asks them to report on changes in bank competition for their business. Our findings show that reports of increased competition by small firm owners are negatively related to the level of and change in deposit concentration. In addition, we find a significant positive association between changes in bank competition reported by small firms and their reports of changes in banking outcomes (e.g. service quality) that is independent of deposit concentration, firm risk, and credit usage.

Ordered-probit analyses of National Federation of Independent Business survey data show that individual firms generally conform to the stock adjustment model of inventory investment, with the predicted response more likely when inventories are perceived as excessive than when deficient. Contrary to inferences about slow adjustment speeds from aggregate data, inventory adjustments by individual firms do not tend to take more than three months to complete. There is no evidence that price is used to achieve desired inventory targets, but prices are sticky in that changes set in motion one quarter tend to continue into the next quarter.