Using a large representative sample of bank card transactions, this paper examines the impact of terrorist attacks on the household consumption structure choice between credit versus debit accounts. Compared with the baseline period, we document a daily increase of 0.19% more in the fraction of...

Using big datasets from four diverse sources, of both suppliers and facilitators or recipients of digital payment platforms, we conduct a comprehensive analysis of the impact of unexpected demonetization in India on payment digitization. The drying-up of cash due to demonetization leads to a...

We use unique and proprietary data from a large Fintech lender to analyze whether alternative data captured from an individual's mobile phone (mobile/social footprint) can substitute for traditional credit bureau scores. Variables that measure a borrowers' digital presence, such as the number...

We show individuals investments chase stock index returns and are financed by foregoing consumption, even after controlling for individual-account level portfolio income effects and other high dimensional fixed effects. This effect only exists for positive stock index returns with no effects for...

We utilize monthly individual-level financial data and item-level supermarket sales data to study how consumption responds to one of the costliest natural disasters in India. We find that consumption dropped by 11% during the disaster, 65% of which was recovered after the disaster. On average,...

We study how consumer spending responds to digital payments, using the differential switch to digital payments across consumers induced by the sudden 2016 Indian Demonetization for identification. Usage of digital payments rose by 3.38 percentage points and monthly spending increased by 3% for...

Exploiting a policy-induced variation in asset liquidation value, we evaluate how changes in lenders’ ability to liquidate collateral affect non-mortgage credit provision in the context of personal loan application. The housing policy increases the probability of loans being granted by 6.5%....