Payday lenders: Heroes or villains?

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Morse, Adair
• 署名单位: University of Chicago
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2011.03.022
• 发表日期: 2011
• 页码: 28-44
• 关键词: Payday lending; Access to credit; natural disasters; Foreclosures; welfare

摘要

Does access to high-interest credit (payday loans) exacerbate or mitigate individual financial distress. Using natural disasters as an exogenous shock, I apply a propensity score-matched, triple-difference specification to identify a causal relation between welfare and access to credit. California foreclosures increase by 4.5 units per 1,000 homes after a natural disaster. The existence of payday lenders mitigates 1.0-1.3 of them, with the caveat that not all payday loans are for emergency distress. Payday lenders also mitigate larcenies (but not burglaries or vehicle thefts). In a placebo test of disasters covered by homeowner insurance, payday lending has no mitigation effect. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.