IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jmoncb/v47y2015i2-3p223-260.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Payday Loan Choices and Consequences

Author

Listed:
  • NEIL BHUTTA
  • PAIGE MARTA SKIBA
  • JEREMY TOBACMAN

Abstract

High‐cost consumer credit has proliferated in the past two decades, raising regulatory scrutiny. We match administrative data from a payday lender with nationally representative credit bureau files to examine the choices of payday loan applicants and assess whether payday loans help or harm borrowers. We find consumers apply for payday loans when they have limited access to mainstream credit. In addition, the weakness of payday applicants’ credit histories is severe and longstanding. Based on regression discontinuity estimates, we show that the effects of payday borrowing on credit scores and other measures of financial well‐being are close to zero. We test the robustness of these null effects to many factors, including features of the local market structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Neil Bhutta & Paige Marta Skiba & Jeremy Tobacman, 2015. "Payday Loan Choices and Consequences," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(2-3), pages 223-260, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jmoncb:v:47:y:2015:i:2-3:p:223-260
    DOI: 10.1111/jmcb.12175
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/jmcb.12175
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/jmcb.12175?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Brian T. Melzer, 2011. "The Real Costs of Credit Access: Evidence from the Payday Lending Market," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 126(1), pages 517-555.
    2. Bhutta, Neil, 2014. "Payday loans and consumer financial health," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 230-242.
    3. Sumit Agarwal & Paige Marta Skiba & Jeremy Tobacman, 2009. "Payday Loans and Credit Cards: New Liquidity and Credit Scoring Puzzles?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 412-417, May.
    4. Lucia F. Dunn & Ida A. Mirzaie, 2016. "Consumer Debt Stress, Changes In Household Debt, And The Great Recession," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 54(1), pages 201-214, January.
    5. Donald P. Morgan & Michael R. Strain & Ihab Seblani, 2012. "How Payday Credit Access Affects Overdrafts and Other Outcomes," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 44, pages 519-531, March.
    6. Zinman, Jonathan, 2010. "Restricting consumer credit access: Household survey evidence on effects around the Oregon rate cap," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 546-556, March.
    7. Kenneth P. Brevoort & Cheryl R. Cooper, 2013. "Foreclosure's Wake: The Credit Experiences of Individuals Following Foreclosure," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 41(4), pages 747-792, December.
    8. Morse, Adair, 2011. "Payday lenders: Heroes or villains?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 102(1), pages 28-44, October.
    9. Robert B. Avery & Neil Bhutta & Kenneth P. Brevoort & Glenn B. Canner, 2011. "The mortgage market in 2010: highlights from the data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), vol. 97(6).
    10. Donghoon Lee & Wilbert Van der Klaauw, 2010. "An introduction to the FRBNY Consumer Credit Panel," Staff Reports 479, Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Neil Bhutta & Jacob Goldin & Tatiana Homonoff, 2016. "Consumer Borrowing after Payday Loan Bans," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(1), pages 225-259.
    2. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    3. J. Brandon Bolen & Gregory Elliehausen & Thomas W. Miller, 2020. "Do Consumers Need More Protection From Small‐Dollar Lenders? Historical Evidence And A Roadmap For Future Research," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 58(4), pages 1577-1613, October.
    4. James R. Barth & Jitka Hilliard & John S. Jahera & Kang B. Lee & Yanfei Sun, 2020. "Payday lending, crime, and bankruptcy: Is there a connection?," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 1159-1177, December.
    5. Eoin McLaughlin & Rowena Pecchenino, 2022. "Fringe banking and financialization: Pawnbroking in pre‐famine and famine Ireland," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(3), pages 903-931, August.
    6. Cuffe, Harold E. & Gibbs, Christopher G., 2017. "The effect of payday lending restrictions on liquor sales," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 132-145.
    7. Dasgupta, Kabir & Mason, Brenden J., 2020. "The effect of interest rate caps on bankruptcy: Synthetic control evidence from recent payday lending bans," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    8. James Barth & Jitka Hilliard & John Jahera, 2015. "Banks and Payday Lenders: Friends or Foes?," International Advances in Economic Research, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 21(2), pages 139-153, May.
    9. Wang, Jialan & Burke, Kathleen, 2022. "The effects of disclosure and enforcement on payday lending in Texas," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 489-507.
    10. Thomas A. Hemphill, 0. "The small-dollar loan industry: a new era of regulatory reform—and emerging competition?," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 0, pages 1-11.
    11. Christine L. Dobridge, 2016. "For Better and for Worse? Effects of Access to High-Cost Consumer Credit," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2016-056, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    12. Barth, James R. & Hilliard, Jitka & Jahera, John S. & Sun, Yanfei, 2016. "Do state regulations affect payday lender concentration?," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 14-29.
    13. Bhutta, Neil, 2014. "Payday loans and consumer financial health," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 230-242.
    14. Thomas A. Hemphill, 2020. "The small-dollar loan industry: a new era of regulatory reform—and emerging competition?," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 55(3), pages 150-160, July.
    15. Cuffe, Harold E. & Gibbs, Christopher G., 2017. "The effect of payday lending restrictions on liquor sales," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 132-145.
    16. Murizah Osman Salleh & Aziz Jaafar & M. Shahid Ebrahim, 2012. "Can an interest-free credit facility be more efficient than a usurious payday loan?," Working Papers 12008, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).
    17. Desai, Chintal A. & Elliehausen, Gregory, 2017. "The effect of state bans of payday lending on consumer credit delinquencies," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 94-107.
    18. Christine L. Dobridge, 2018. "High‐Cost Credit and Consumption Smoothing," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(2-3), pages 407-433, March.
    19. Daniel Bjorkegren & Joshua Blumenstock & Omowunmi Folajimi-Senjobi & Jacqueline Mauro & Suraj R. Nair, 2022. "Instant Loans Can Lift Subjective Well-Being: A Randomized Evaluation of Digital Credit in Nigeria," Papers 2202.13540, arXiv.org.
    20. Jae Min Lee & Narang Park & Wookjae Heo, 2019. "Importance of Subjective Financial Knowledge and Perceived Credit Score in Payday Loan Use," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-21, September.

    More about this item

    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:wly:jmoncb:v:47:y:2015:i:2-3:p:223-260. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2879 .

    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.