This paper utilizes high-quality transaction data from the largest bank in Denmark to study what drives the demand for high-cost consumption loans. I investigate the extent to which adverse events drive loan demand, or if it is more likely to be explained by borrowers' personality traits. I find...

We use Household Budget Survey data to analyze the evolution of the household credit market in the Czech Republic over the period 2000–2008. We next merge our data with the Statistics on Income and Living Conditions in 2005–2008, in order to test the validity of the standard debt burden...

This paper investigates the role of loan contract terms in the performance of consumer credit. Taking advantage of a sample of accepted and rejected consumer loans from a Czech commercial bank, I estimate the elasticity of loan demand and find that borrowers with a high probability of default...

I use peer-to-peer (P2P) credit markets to study how innovations in housing affect households' unsecured credit decisions. Driven by homeowners, I find that a one standard deviation increase in house price growth causes loan origination growth to decrease by 44% of its mean. Conversely, renters...

Using comprehensive credit bureau data, we document that consumers who borrow from marketplace lending (MPL) platforms have lower credit scores and higher default rates in the long run relative to observably similar applicants for bank loans. This underperformance of MPL borrowers is more...

Multiple extensions of the federal student loan forbearance program since March 2020resulted in a temporary payment pause that lasted more than 3 years. We examine theimpact of long-term forbearance on the evolution of borrowing by distressed individuals.We observe substantial increases in...

This paper documents that increased scarcity right before a payday causally impacts credit choices. Exploiting a transfer system that randomly assigns the number of days between paydays to Swedish social welfare recipients, we find that low educated borrowers behave as if they are more...

Proponents of minimum wage legislation point to its potential to raise earnings and reduce poverty, while opponents argue that disemployment effects lead to net welfare losses. But these arguments typically ignore the possibility of spillover effects on other aspects of households' financial...

Using detailed and highly-disaggregated data on spending, income, bank account balances, and consumer credit, we examine the tendency of individuals to “co-hold”, i.e., to simultaneously hold low-interest liquid deposit balances and high-interest debt in the form of overdrafts. The...

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,...