We measure readiness to face emergency expenses using data from a representative survey of U.S. consumers. Our main findings are as follows: (1) there is substantial heterogeneity in financial readiness, with lowest‐income, least‐educated, unemployed, and Black consumers most likely to have $0 saved for emergency expenses; (2) the amount of emergency savings is correlated with payment choice: Less financially prepared individuals use cash more and credit cards less, compared to those with higher emergency savings; (3) while people with low emergency savings rely more on cash than credit cards, they revolve more debt, and so a financial shock is costlier for them; (4) changes in income from one year to the next do not appear to affect the likelihood of revolving on credit cards or increase the amount borrowed, although the data were collected before the COVID‐19 pandemic. For those with little or no savings and already financially vulnerable, even a temporary financial shock—an unexpected negative income shock (such as a layoff or a short‐term government shutdown) or an unexpected expenditure (such as a medical expense or a car repair)—could have severe financial consequences, exacerbated by the high cost of borrowing on credit cards. (JEL D12, D14, D15, E21)

中文翻译：

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未预料到的金融震荡：紧急情况下的储蓄和信用卡债务

我们使用来自美国消费者的一项代表性调查数据来衡量面对紧急开支的意愿。我们的主要发现如下：（1）财务状况存在很大的异质性，收入最低，受教育程度最低，失业的黑人消费者最有可能为紧急开支节省0美元；（2）紧急储蓄的数量与付款方式相关：与那些拥有较高紧急储蓄的人相比，财务准备不足的人使用现金较多而信用卡较少。（3）虽然紧急储蓄率较低的人比信用卡更依赖现金，但他们的债务却更多，因此财务冲击对他们而言代价更高；（4）从一年到下一年的收入变化似乎不会影响使用信用卡循环的可能性或增加借入的金额，尽管数据是在COVID-19大流行之前收集的。对于那些储蓄很少或没有储蓄并且已经处于财务脆弱状态的人，甚至是暂时的财务冲击-意外的负面收入冲击（例如裁员或政府短期停工）或意外的支出（例如医疗费用或汽车维修） ）—可能会产生严重的财务后果，信用卡借贷的高昂成本使这种情况更加恶化。（ JEL D12，D14，D15，E21）