Much Ado about Nothing? New Evidence on the Effects of Payday Lending on Military Members

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Carter, Susan Payne; Skimmyhorn, William
• 署名单位: United States Military Academy; United States Department of Defense; United States Army
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/REST_a_00647
• 发表日期: 2017-10
• 页码: 606-621
• 关键词: access; HEALTH; loans

摘要

We evaluate the effect that payday loan access has on credit and labor market outcomes of individuals in the U.S. Army. Using the conditional random assignment of service members to different locations, we employ three identification strategies: cross-sectional variation in state policies, within-term variation in payday lending access, and a difference-in-difference analysis using the national Military Lending Act. We find few adverse effects of payday loan access on service members when using any of these methods, even when we examine dozens of subsamples that explore potential differential treatment effects.