Factors Driving the Credit Card Ownership in Italy

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the main determinants of credit card ownership by analyzing the variables that may affect the decision to hold a credit card. Using the 2012 Survey on Household Income and Wealth provided by the Bank of Italy as main source, we estimated count data models in order to identify the socio-economic, demographic and territorial variables affecting the credit card accounts held by households. Our estimates give evidence of the significance of the considered factors. In particular, we find that geographical location is an important determinant of families behavior in line with the socio-economic gap between the North and the South of Italy. Other relevant variables acting on the number of credit cards held are age, income, municipality size, gender, education and marital status. The reached results are interesting in depicting the main characteristics of cardholders and in helping the implementation of a segment-specific marketing program in the banking services industry

Cards on the Table: Efficiency and Welfare Effects of the No-Surcharge Rule

“…On (ii), the assumption of a …xed mass of cardholders does not capture potential variations in the size of this group when the NSR is in force. Nevertheless, Kinsey (1981) and Amendola, Pellecchia and Sensini (2016) found that consumers'decisions to subscribe to a credit card can be broadly explained by reasons that are independent of the NSR, such as: income, place of residence, use of checking and savings accounts, attitude towards credit, age and occupation. Even considering elastic card adoption in the model, it is unclear how the mass of cardholders would vary by virtue of the NSR.…”