Mind the App: Mobile Access to Financial Information and Consumer Behavior

ABSTRACT We study whether easier monitoring of personal finances affects consumer spending. We use transaction data from an account aggregation company to study consumers who installed the mobile app after using the same service on a personal computer for several months. We utilize the staggered release of the apps on different devices (iPhone, iPad, and Android) to identify a causal effect conditional on adoption of the mobile app. Consumers decrease their discretionary spending following the installation of the mobile app. The decrease is larger during evening hours and among individuals with lower proxies of self‐control, patterns consistent with a monitoring/self‐regulation channel and with benchmark models of costly self‐control.