# Rawley Z. Heimer

> Associate Professor of Finance at the W. P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. Research on household finance, retail investing and brokerage, consumer credit, mortgage lending, consumer protection and financial regulation, and saving, retirement, and inheritance. Each paper below links to a page with the full abstract, a plain-language summary, a study-at-a-glance table (question, setting, data, method, main findings), and citation data.

Contact: rawley.heimer@asu.edu. Former Senior Advisor for Research and Policy at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

## Research topics

- [Retail investing and brokerage](https://rawleyheimer.com/topics/retail-investing-brokerage.html): How individual investors behave in financial markets, why they so often trade against their own interests, and how leverage limits, brokerage practices, and social networks change their outcomes.
- [Consumer credit and debt](https://rawleyheimer.com/topics/consumer-credit-debt.html): How households get, use, and repay credit, and how early-life conditions, cash windfalls, regulation, and politics shape credit outcomes, studied mostly with individual credit bureau records.
- [Mortgage lending and housing](https://rawleyheimer.com/topics/mortgage-lending-housing.html): Who gets mortgage credit and on what terms, including tests for disparate treatment in lending, the politics of fair-lending enforcement, and the role of institutional investors in single-family housing.
- [Consumer protection and financial regulation](https://rawleyheimer.com/topics/consumer-protection-regulation.html): How regulation, supervision, and politics affect people who use financial services, from leverage limits for retail traders and age limits on credit cards to complaint resolution at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
- [Saving, retirement, and inheritance](https://rawleyheimer.com/topics/saving-retirement-inheritance.html): How people accumulate, spend down, and pass on wealth over their lives: saving for retirement, beliefs about longevity, bequests and inheritances, private family foundations, and the effects of wealth shocks.
- [Behavioral finance and beliefs](https://rawleyheimer.com/topics/behavioral-finance-beliefs.html): Why people’s financial choices depart from what standard models predict: biased beliefs about risk and longevity, plans that change once outcomes arrive, social influence among investors, and how generative AI may change financial decisions.
- [Legal institutions and financial development](https://rawleyheimer.com/topics/legal-institutions-development.html): How courts and contract enforcement shape credit markets and long-run economic development, studied through the assignment of state versus tribal courts on Native American reservations.

## Published papers

- [Dynamic Inconsistency in Risky Choice: Evidence from the Lab and Field](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/dynamic-inconsistency-risky-choice.html): Rawley Z. Heimer, Zwetelina Iliewa, Alex Imas, and Martin Weber (2025). American Economic Review. People plan to keep taking risk after gains and stop after losses, but in practice they cash out gains early and chase losses.
- [Shale Shocked: Cash Windfalls and Household Debt Repayment](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/shale-shocked-cash-windfalls-household-debt.html): J. Anthony Cookson, Erik P. Gilje, and Rawley Z. Heimer (2022). Journal of Financial Economics. Households that receive cash windfalls mostly pay down debt, and the effect is three times larger for subprime borrowers than for prime borrowers.
- [Biased by Choice: How Financial Constraints Can Reduce Financial Mistakes](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/biased-by-choice-financial-constraints.html): Rawley Z. Heimer and Alex Imas (2022). Review of Financial Studies. Limits on borrowing can make investors better off by curbing their behavioral biases.
- [Personal Wealth, Self-Employment, and Business Ownership](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/personal-wealth-self-employment-business-ownership.html): Aymeric Bellon, J. Anthony Cookson, Erik P. Gilje, and Rawley Z. Heimer (2021). Review of Financial Studies. Large cash windfalls raise business formation but do not make people more likely to become self-employed.
- [Politicizing Consumer Credit](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/politicizing-consumer-credit.html): Pat Akey, Rawley Z. Heimer, and Stefan Lewellen (2021). Journal of Financial Economics. When a state’s senator becomes a powerful committee chair, credit access in the state’s minority neighborhoods falls by 7.5%.
- [YOLO: Mortality Beliefs and Household Finance Puzzles](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/yolo-mortality-beliefs-household-finance.html): Rawley Z. Heimer, Kristian Ove R. Myrseth, and Raphael S. Schoenle (2019). Journal of Finance. Young people underestimate their chances of survival and older people overestimate theirs, which helps explain under-saving and slow retirement drawdown.
- [Should Retail Investors’ Leverage Be Limited?](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/should-retail-investors-leverage-be-limited.html): Rawley Z. Heimer and Alp Simsek (2019). Journal of Financial Economics. Capping how much leverage retail traders can use made them better off without harming market liquidity.
- [Growing Up Without Finance](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/growing-up-without-finance.html): James R. Brown, J. Anthony Cookson, and Rawley Z. Heimer (2019). Journal of Financial Economics. People who grow up without local banks enter credit markets later and, as adults, have lower credit scores and more delinquent accounts.
- [Law and Finance Matter: Lessons from Externally Imposed Courts](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/law-and-finance-matter-externally-imposed-courts.html): James R. Brown, J. Anthony Cookson, and Rawley Z. Heimer (2017). Review of Financial Studies. Reservations assigned to state courts, which enforce contracts more predictably, have stronger credit markets and higher incomes.
- [Peer Pressure: Social Interaction and the Disposition Effect](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/peer-pressure-social-interaction-disposition-effect.html): Rawley Z. Heimer (2016). Review of Financial Studies. Gaining access to a social trading network nearly doubles a trader’s tendency to sell winners and hold on to losers.
- [Financial Decision Making, at the Dawn of AI](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/financial-decision-making-dawn-of-ai.html): Rawley Z. Heimer (forthcoming). Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance. Reviews why people’s saving, investing, and borrowing choices depart from what financial economics prescribes, and how generative AI might change them.
- [Subjective Beliefs, Saving, and Spending for Retirement](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/subjective-beliefs-saving-spending-retirement.html): Rawley Z. Heimer (2026). Chapter in Retirement Saving, Investment, and Spending: New Lessons from Behavioral Research. Reviews how beliefs about the future, especially about one’s own survival, change the predictions of standard models of retirement saving and spending.
- [Courting Economic Development](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/courting-economic-development.html): James R. Brown, J. Anthony Cookson, and Rawley Z. Heimer (2017). World Bank Economic Review. Reservations under state courts grew faster over the long run than similar reservations whose tribal courts enforced contracts less predictably.
- [Friends Do Let Friends Buy Stocks Actively](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/friends-do-let-friends-buy-stocks-actively.html): Rawley Z. Heimer (2014). Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Social interaction is more common among active traders than among passive investors.
- [Facebook Finance: How Social Interaction Propagates Active Investing](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/facebook-finance-social-interaction-active-investing.html): Rawley Z. Heimer and David Simon (2015). Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland Working Paper 15-22. Active trading strategies spread through social networks of retail traders, even though the network reveals how rarely they succeed.

## Working papers

- [Temporal Focal Points and Economic Outcomes: Evidence from U.S. Mortgage Lending](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/temporal-focal-points-mortgage-lending.html): Marco Giacoletti, Rawley Z. Heimer, and Edison Yu (2021). Working paper. Loan officers’ month-end volume quotas account for at least half of the unexplained racial gap in mortgage approvals, pointing to lender behavior.
- [Fallible Firms: The Economics of Consumer Redress](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/fallible-firms-consumer-redress.html): Charlotte Haendler and Rawley Z. Heimer (2025). Working paper. Whether consumers get money back after complaining about a financial firm depends more on who complains than on which firm is involved.
- [Pushing Boundaries: Political Redistricting and Consumer Credit](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/pushing-boundaries-redistricting-consumer-credit.html): Pat Akey, Christine Dobridge, Rawley Z. Heimer, and Stefan Lewellen (2017). Working paper. Consumers lose access to credit when their congressional districts are gerrymandered.
- [Five Facts about Bequest Motives](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/five-facts-bequest-motives.html): Rawley Z. Heimer and Xiang Li (2025). Working paper. Bequest motives are stronger for people with heirs and the very wealthy, follow a U-shape over life, and people overestimate the bequests they will leave.
- [The Wealth Draw-down of the Fabulously Rich: Insights from Private Family Foundations](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/wealth-drawdown-private-family-foundations.html): Changhyun Ahn and Rawley Z. Heimer (2025). Draft available on request. When the eldest member of a very wealthy family dies, the family foundation roughly doubles in size, but charitable giving lags far behind.
- [Single-Family REITs and Local Housing Markets](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/single-family-reits-local-housing-markets.html): Marco Giacoletti, Rawley Z. Heimer, Wenli Li, and Edison Yu (2024). Working paper. Single-family REITs buy homes in neighborhoods ringing city centers, and their growth shows little evidence of harming local housing markets.
- [Brokerage Commissions and Trading Volume: Lessons from the 20th Century](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/brokerage-commissions-trading-volume.html): Valeria Fedyk and Rawley Z. Heimer (2026). Draft available on request. Under fixed NYSE commission schedules, higher commissions led to more trading, consistent with brokers steering investors toward high-commission stocks.
- [Borrowing Young, Paying Later](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/borrowing-young-paying-later.html): Allison Cole, Rawley Z. Heimer, and Igor Livshits (2026). Draft available on request. The Credit CARD Act’s limits on cards for people under 21 raised credit scores and homeownership by age 30 but increased mortgage delinquency.
- [Waiting for Wealth: Inheritances and Household Savings](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/waiting-for-wealth-inheritances-household-savings.html): Eirik Eylands Brandsaas, Rawley Z. Heimer, and Mateo Velásquez-Giraldo (2026). Draft available on request. Expected inheritances raise consumption and reduce saving long before they arrive, and leaving them out makes standard models overstate how patient households are.

## Guides and policy writing

- [Navigating Credit Bureau Data: Field Notes for Researchers](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/navigating-credit-bureau-data.html): Rawley Z. Heimer (2024). Research guide. A practical guide to using credit bureau data in research: what it can measure, its limitations, how to acquire it, and how to merge it with other data.
- [Are People Overconfident about Avoiding COVID-19?](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/overconfidence-avoiding-covid-19.html): Rawley Z. Heimer, Haoyang Liu, and Xiaohan Zhang (2020). Liberty Street Economics, Federal Reserve Bank of New York. People expect their own exposure to COVID-19 to be well below what they expect for the general public.
- [Intergenerational Homeownership and Mortgage Distress](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/intergenerational-homeownership-mortgage-distress.html): Nicholas Fritsch and Rawley Z. Heimer (2020). Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Parents’ mortgage distress during the 2008 crisis is associated with a lower chance that their children buy a home.
- [Geographic Mobility and Consumer Financial Health: Evidence from Oil Production Boom Towns](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers/geographic-mobility-consumer-financial-health.html): Rawley Z. Heimer, Timothy Stehulak, and Caitlin Treanor (2016). Economic Commentary, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Residents who move away from oil boom towns after the bust end up with stronger consumer financial health than those who stay.

## Optional

- [Citations for every paper in BibTeX](https://rawleyheimer.com/papers.bib)
- [All abstracts and summaries in one file](https://rawleyheimer.com/llms-full.txt)
- [About Rawley Z. Heimer](https://rawleyheimer.com/about.html)
- [Media coverage](https://rawleyheimer.com/media.html)