Brian Murtha's paper, "Secondary Selling: Beyond the Salesperson-Customer Dyad," with Molly Burchett, Gatton Ph.D. alum and Ajay Kohli (Georgia Institute of Technology) has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Marketing.

Abstract: We combine state-level minimum wage changes with individual-level income and credit data to estimate the effect of wage gains on the debts of low-wage workers. In the three years following an $0.88 minimum wage increase, low-wage workers experience a $2,712 income increase and a $856 decrease in debt. The entire decline in debt comes from less student loan borrowing among enrolled college students. Credit constraints, buffer-stock behavior, and other rational channels cannot explain the reduction in student debt. Our results are consistent with students perceiving a utility cost of borrowing student debt; such debt aversion can arise from mental accounting.