We report the results of a longitudinal intervention with students across five universities in China designed to reduce online consumer debt. Our research design allocates individuals to either a financial literacy treatment, a self-control training program, or a zero-touch control group. The...

CASHPOR Micro-Credit (CMC) is providing micro-credit on a large scale exclusively to poor in the poverty-incapacitated areas of eastern region of Uttar-Pradesh. CASHPOR was started in 1996 and as on 31st march, 2009 it has provided credit worth INR 1.82 billion to 319,000 poor women.This case...

We find that competition from payday lenders leads depository institutions to raise overdraft fees and reduce the availability of “free” checking accounts. We attribute this rise in prices partly to adverse selection created by banks’ practice of charging a flat fee regardless of the...

I examine the use of flexible savings-and-loan accounts offered by SafeSave, a microfinance institution serving poor slum dwellers in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I find that 59 per cent of the clients co-hold, meaning that they borrow at high interest rates and simultaneously hold low-yield liquid...

By leveraging machine-learning algorithms and using nontraditional digital data derived primarily from borrowers’ mobile devices, digital lenders have vastly expanded access to credit in developing economies for millions of individuals without a prior credit history. At the same time,...

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...

We propose a parsimonious model with adverse selection where delinquency, renegotiation, and bankruptcy all occur in equilibrium as a result of a simple screening mechanism. A borrower has private information about her cost of bankruptcy, and a lender may use random contracts to screen different...

This paper shows, using data from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey, that housing credit has become increasingly available over time in Japan, especially since 2000, and that this has made it easier for Japanese households to purchase housing and enabled them to do so at an earlier age....

The subject of this paper is the contemporary trend in residential real estate markets in European countries and their impact on the quality of banks' housing loan portfolios. Due to the fact that these are the markets that still have not fully recovered from the previous financial crisis, and...

We study an exchange economy with overlapping generations of consumers who derive utility from consuming a non-durable commodity and housing. A banking sector offers loans to finance housing. We provide a complete characterization of the equilibrium dynamics which alternates between an expansive...