IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jconsa/v49y2015i2p407-435.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Bounded Rationality and Use of Alternative Financial Services

Author

Listed:
  • CLIFF A. ROBB
  • PATRYK BABIARZ
  • ANN WOODYARD
  • MARTIN C. SEAY

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="joca12071-abs-0001"> The increasing pervasiveness of high-cost alternative financial services (AFS) has captured the attention of policymakers, consumer educators, and financial counselors. Using data from the 2009 to 2012 waves of the National Financial Capability Study (NFCS), this article investigates AFS borrowing behaviors through the lens of a boundedly rational choice framework, with an emphasis on overconfidence. Through repeated testing of isolated samples of individuals with characteristics that make them less likely to objectively need such products, the roles of actual (objective) and perceived (subjective) financial knowledge in the decision-making process are explored. Consistent results indicate that individuals with lower objective financial knowledge and those that are overconfident in their self-assessed knowledge level are significantly more likely to utilize AFS instruments. These results suggest that a significant portion of AFS users may select these products without conducting adequate search, resulting in less than optimal financial decisions holding all else equal.

Suggested Citation

  • Cliff A. Robb & Patryk Babiarz & Ann Woodyard & Martin C. Seay, 2015. "Bounded Rationality and Use of Alternative Financial Services," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 407-435, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:49:y:2015:i:2:p:407-435
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/joca.12071
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. 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.
    2. Herbert Simon, 2000. "Bounded rationality in social science: Today and tomorrow," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 1(1), pages 25-39, March.
    3. Lusardi, Annamaria & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2007. "Baby Boomer retirement security: The roles of planning, financial literacy, and housing wealth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 205-224, January.
    4. Koellinger, Philipp & Minniti, Maria & Schade, Christian, 2007. ""I think I can, I think I can": Overconfidence and entrepreneurial behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 502-527, August.
    5. Marianne Bertrand & Adair Morse, 2011. "Information Disclosure, Cognitive Biases, and Payday Borrowing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(6), pages 1865-1893, December.
    6. Signe-Mary McKernan & James M. Lacko & Manoj Hastak, 2003. "Empirical Evidence on the Determinants of Rent-to-Own Use and Purchase Behavior," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 17(1), pages 33-52, February.
    7. 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.
    8. John Conlisk, 1996. "Why Bounded Rationality?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 34(2), pages 669-700, June.
    9. Cliff Robb, 2011. "Financial Knowledge and Credit Card Behavior of College Students," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 690-698, December.
    10. Edward C. Lawrence & Gregory Elliehausen, 2008. "A Comparative Analysis Of Payday Loan Customers," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 26(2), pages 299-316, April.
    11. Courchane, Marsha & Gailey, Adam & Zorn, Peter, 2008. "Consumer credit literacy: What price perception," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 60(1-2), pages 125-138.
    12. Stephanie Moulton & Cäzilia Loibl & Anya Samak & J. Michael Collins, 2013. "Borrowing Capacity and Financial Decisions of Low-to-Moderate Income First-Time Homebuyers," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(3), pages 375-403, November.
    13. Jonathan Zinman, 2009. "Where Is The Missing Credit Card Debt? Clues And Implications," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 55(2), pages 249-265, June.
    14. David Cesarini & Magnus Johannesson & Paul Lichtenstein & Björn Wallace, 2009. "Heritability of Overconfidence," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 7(2-3), pages 617-627, 04-05.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wonseong Kim & Choong Lyol Lee, 2024. "Bounded Rationality in Central Bank Communication," Papers 2411.04286, arXiv.org.
    2. Gerrans, Paul, 2021. "Undergraduate student financial education interventions: Medium term evidence of retention, decay, and confidence in financial literacy," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    3. Terri Friedline & Nancy Kepple, 2017. "Does Community Access to Alternative Financial Services Relate to Individuals’ Use of These Services? Beyond Individual Explanations," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 40(1), pages 51-79, March.
    4. Shin, Su Hyun & Kim, Kyoung Tae & Seay, Martin, 2020. "Sources of information and portfolio allocation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    5. Sunwoo T. Lee & Kyoung Tae Kim, 2022. "A Decomposition Analysis of Racial/Ethnic Differences in Financial Knowledge and Overconfidence," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 815-831, December.
    6. Linda Dezső & Barna Bakó & Gábor Neszveda, 2022. "Exploiting context-dependent preferences to protect borrowers," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(4), pages 291-305, December.
    7. Jackson P. Lautier & Vladimir Pozdnyakov & Jun Yan, 2022. "On the Convergence of Credit Risk in Current Consumer Automobile Loans," Papers 2211.09176, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2024.
    8. H. Lim & J. C. Letkiewicz, 2023. "Consumer Experience of Mistreatment and Fraud in Financial Services: Implications from an Integrative Consumer Vulnerability Framework," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 109-135, June.
    9. Kyoung Tae Kim & Soo Hyun Cho & Sharon A. DeVaney, 2021. "Racial/ethnic differences in holding a retirement saving motive: A decomposition analysis," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 464-482, June.
    10. Zibei Chen & Terri Friedline & Catherine M. Lemieux, 2022. "A National Examination on Payday Loan Use and Financial Well-being: a propensity score matching Approach," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 678-689, December.
    11. Travis P. Mountain & Namhoon Kim & Joyce Serido & Soyeon Shim, 2021. "Does Type of Financial Learning Matter for Young Adults’ Objective Financial Knowledge and Financial Behaviors? A Longitudinal and Mediation Analysis," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 113-132, March.
    12. Katharina Allinger & Elisabeth Beckmann, 2021. "Prevalence and determinants of nonbank borrowing in CESEE: evidence from the OeNB Euro Survey," Focus on European Economic Integration, Oesterreichische Nationalbank (Austrian Central Bank), issue Q1/21, pages 7-35.
    13. Kyoung Tae Kim & Jonghee Lee & Sherman D. Hanna, 2020. "The Effects of Financial Literacy Overconfidence on the Mortgage Delinquency of US Households," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 517-540, June.
    14. Mathieu R. Despard & Michal Grinstein-Weiss & Chunhui Ren & Shenyang Guo & Ramesh Raghavan, 2017. "Effects of a Tax-Time Savings Intervention on Use of Alternative Financial Services among Lower-Income Households," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(2), pages 355-379, July.
    15. Cäzilia Loibl & Jodi Letkiewicz & Simon McNair & Barbara Summers & Wändi Bruine de Bruin, 2021. "On the association of debt attitudes with socioeconomic characteristics and financial behaviors," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 939-966, September.
    16. Pankaj Kumar Maskara & Emre Kuvvet & Gengxuan Chen, 2021. "The role of P2P platforms in enhancing financial inclusion in the United States: An analysis of peer‐to‐peer lending across the rural–urban divide," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(3), pages 747-774, September.
    17. Kyoung Tae Kim & Somer G. Anderson & Martin C. Seay, 2019. "Financial Knowledge and Short-Term and Long-Term Financial Behaviors of Millennials in the United States," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 40(2), pages 194-208, June.
    18. Kyoung Tae Kim & Soo Hyun Cho & Jing Jian Xiao, 2023. "Is Ignorance Bliss? Use of Alternative Financial Services, Financial Knowledge, and Financial Anxiety," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 956-967, December.
    19. Binghui Wu & Tingting Duan, 2019. "Nonlinear Dynamics Characteristic of Risk Contagion in Financial Market Based on Agent Modeling and Complex Network," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2019, pages 1-12, June.
    20. Struckell, Elisabeth M. & Patel, Pankaj C. & Ojha, Divesh & Oghazi, Pejvak, 2022. "Financial literacy and self employment – The moderating effect of gender and race," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 639-653.

    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. 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.
    2. John Y. Campbell & Howell E. Jackson & Brigitte C. Madrian & Peter Tufano, 2011. "Consumer Financial Protection," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(1), pages 91-114, Winter.
    3. Robert Mayer, 2013. "When and Why Usury Should be Prohibited," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 116(3), pages 513-527, September.
    4. Sarah Miller & Cindy K. Soo, 2020. "Does Increasing Access to Formal Credit Reduce Payday Borrowing?," NBER Working Papers 27783, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. McKernan, Signe-Mary & Ratcliffe, Caroline & Kuehn, Daniel, 2013. "Prohibitions, price caps, and disclosures: A look at state policies and alternative financial product use," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 207-223.
    6. Irene Herremans & Peggy Hedges & Fereshteh Mahmoudian & Anne Kleffner & Mahrukh Tahir, 2023. "The Paradox of the Payday Borrower: A Case Study of the Role of Planned Behavior in Borrowers’ Motivations and Experiences," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-24, April.
    7. Burke, Matt & Fry, John, 2019. "How easy is it to understand consumer finance?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1-4.
    8. Agarwal, Sumit & Amromin, Gene & Ben-David, Itzhak & Chomsisengphet, Souphala & Evanoff, Douglas D., 2014. "Predatory lending and the subprime crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 29-52.
    9. 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.
    10. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    11. Taylor Canann & Richard Evans, 2015. "Determinants of Short-term Lender Location and Interest Rates," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 48(3), pages 235-262, December.
    12. French, Declan & McKillop, Donal, 2016. "Financial literacy and over-indebtedness in low-income households," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 1-11.
    13. Victor Medina-Olivares & Raffaella Calabrese, 2023. "Detecting Consumers' Financial Vulnerability using Open Banking Data: Evidence from UK Payday Loans," Papers 2306.01749, arXiv.org.
    14. Fitzpatrick, Katie, 2024. "Non-bank credit and food hardship: The association between payday loans, pawn loans, rent-to-own contracts and food hardship in households with children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    15. 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.
    16. Richard W. Evans, 2012. "Determinants of Short-term Consumer Lending Interest Rates," BYU Macroeconomics and Computational Laboratory Working Paper Series 2012-07, Brigham Young University, Department of Economics, BYU Macroeconomics and Computational Laboratory.
    17. Annamaria Lusardi & Olivia S. Mitchell, 2014. "The Economic Importance of Financial Literacy: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 52(1), pages 5-44, March.
    18. Annamaria Lusardi & Carlo de Bassa Scheresberg, 2013. "Financial Literacy and High-Cost Borrowing in the United States," NBER Working Papers 18969, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Bhutta, Neil, 2014. "Payday loans and consumer financial health," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 230-242.
    20. Susan Payne Carter, 2015. "Payday Loan and Pawnshop Usage: The Impact of Allowing Payday Loan Rollovers," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(2), pages 436-456, July.

    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:bla:jconsa:v:49:y:2015:i:2:p:407-435. 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=0022-0078 .

    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.