IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/apandp/v116y2026p299-304.html

Beyond Banks: Trust among the Financially Underserved

Author

Listed:
  • Paola Boel
  • Daniela Puzzello
  • Peter Zimmerman

Abstract

In 2023, over 18 percent of US households were financially underserved. Prior work identifies mistrust in banks as an important factor, but it is unclear whether this mistrust is unique to banks. To address this, we surveyed underserved individuals in the United States. We elicited their levels of trust in various institutions, including banks, government entities, and alternative payment providers. We identify three dominant components of the trust scores: broad-scope trust, concerns about traditional financial institutions, and preference for a physical business presence. We explore how sociodemographic characteristics, including income, age, education, race, and political affiliation, affect these components of trust.

Suggested Citation

  • Paola Boel & Daniela Puzzello & Peter Zimmerman, 2026. "Beyond Banks: Trust among the Financially Underserved," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 116, pages 299-304, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:116:y:2026:p:299-304
    DOI: 10.1257/pandp.20261008
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/pandp.20261008
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E247765V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/25212
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/25213
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/pandp.20261008?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D72 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G51 - Financial Economics - - Household Finance - - - Household Savings, Borrowing, Debt, and Wealth
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:apandp:v:116:y:2026:p:299-304. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.