Does Community Access to Alternative Financial Services Relate to Individuals’ Use of These Services? Beyond Individual Explanations

Impact of Financial Education Mandates on Younger Consumers' Use of Alternative Financial Services

“…Payday lending institutions tend to concentrate in poorer and predominantly minority areas, and in areas whose populations have lower credit scores (Barth et al ; Prager ). These studies match findings that on average, AFS consumers are low or moderate income, underrepresented minorities with dependents (Chatterjee ; Friedline and Kepple ; Lusardi and de Bassa Scheresberg ). However, the direction of causality for this dynamic is unclear.…”

“…For instance, Stegman and Faris (2003) find that while the number of traditional banking institutions in a given neighborhood has a small but negative impact on use of payday loans, the number of payday loan stores in a given neighborhood has a positive impact on use of payday loans whose absolute magnitude is greater than that of traditional banking institutions. Similarly, Friedline and Kepple (2017) use data from the 2012 NFCS and find that a larger concentration of AFS institutions in a given zip code is associated with greater AFS use. Payday lending institutions tend to concentrate in poorer and predominantly minority areas, and in areas whose populations have lower credit scores (Barth et al 2016;Prager 2014).…”

The Financial Services Environment and Schools' Savings Rates in the San Francisco Kindergarten to College Program

“…A social explanation suggests that the local financial services environment can create an emergent effect through mechanisms like collective efficacy, whereby exposure to financial services shapes beliefs about using these services (Friedline and Kepple ). From this perspective, the collective messaging or signaling sent by the composition of financial services in a given environment may shape and reinforce a person's beliefs about making deposits into a CSA account.…”

“…Closer proximity and increased access are practical, parsimonious explanations of financial behaviors. In alignment with public health literature studying fast food restaurants' proximity to schools (Austin et al 2005;Currie et al 2010;Davis and Carpenter 2009), people may use financial services or make deposits into CSA accounts given the convenient presence of banks, credit unions, or payday lenders (Bhutta 2014;Friedline and Kepple 2017). A bank located within walking distance to a school, for instance, could be associated with an increased frequency of CSA account deposits.…”

“…For more information on K2C bank field trips, please visit: https://sfgov.org/ofe/book-bankfield-trip. these services (Friedline and Kepple 2017). From this perspective, the collective messaging or signaling sent by the composition of financial services in a given environment may shape and reinforce a person's beliefs about making deposits into a CSA account.…”