Mary is a Financial Economist at the Center for Financial Research in the Special Studies section. Prior to arriving at the FDIC, Mary was an Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland where she studied household finance and consumption issues. Her research focuses on household paycheck-to-paycheck behavior including how access to high-dollar credit impacts short-term consumption and how government benefits impact daily shopping efforts and labor-force participation. Her most recent work documents historical changes in credit price disclosures as captured in mail-order catalogs of the 20th Century and examines the corresponding impacts on consumer comprehension of credit costs. Her research has appeared in several national media outlets including the Washington Post and NPR’s Marketplace.
Before becoming an assistant professor, Mary worked as a research assistant at the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. She obtained both a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School and a B.A. in Economics and in International Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and received an M.S. and Ph.D. in Economics from Northwestern University.