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How Do Payday Loans Affect Borrowers? Evidence from the U.K. Market

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  • John Gathergood
  • Benedict Guttman-Kenney
  • Stefan Hunt

Abstract

Payday loans are controversial high-cost, short-term lending products, banned in many U.S. states. But debates surrounding their benefits to consumers continue. We analyze the effects of payday loans on consumers by using a unique data set including 99% of loans approved in the United Kingdom over a two-year period matched to credit files. Using a regression discontinuity research design, our results show that payday loans provide short-lived liquidity gains and encourage consumers to take on additional credit. However, in the following months, payday loans cause persistent increases in defaults and cause consumers to exceed their bank overdraft limits. Received August 1, 2017; editorial decision June 30, 2018 by Editor Philip Strahan. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.

Suggested Citation

  • John Gathergood & Benedict Guttman-Kenney & Stefan Hunt, 2019. "How Do Payday Loans Affect Borrowers? Evidence from the U.K. Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(2), pages 496-523.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:rfinst:v:32:y:2019:i:2:p:496-523.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/rfs/hhy090
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    Cited by:

    1. Liberman, Andres & Paravisini, Daniel & Pathania, Vikram, 2021. "High-cost debt and perceived creditworthiness: Evidence from the UK," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 719-736.
    2. Leong, Kaiwen & Li, Huailu & Pavanini, Nicola & Walsh, Christoph, 2024. "The effects of policy interventions to limit illegal money lending," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    3. Dasgupta, Kabir & Mason, Brenden J., 2020. "The effect of interest rate caps on bankruptcy: Synthetic control evidence from recent payday lending bans," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    4. Daniel Bjorkegren & Joshua Blumenstock & Omowunmi Folajimi-Senjobi & Jacqueline Mauro & Suraj R. Nair, 2022. "Instant Loans Can Lift Subjective Well-Being: A Randomized Evaluation of Digital Credit in Nigeria," Papers 2202.13540, arXiv.org.
    5. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    6. Will Dobbie & Andres Liberman & Daniel Paravisini & Vikram Pathania, 2021. "Measuring Bias in Consumer Lending [Loan Prospecting and the Loss of Soft Information]," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 88(6), pages 2799-2832.
    7. Benjamin L. Collier & Daniel A. Hartley & Benjamin J. Keys & Jing Xian Ng, 2024. "Credit When You Need It," NBER Working Papers 32845, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Jenkins, Stephen P., 2022. "Getting the Measure of Inequality," IZA Discussion Papers 14996, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    9. A. Håkansson, 2020. "Role of Gambling in Payback Failure in Consumer Credit—Data from a Large Body of Material Regarding Consumer Loan Recipients in Sweden," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-18, April.
    10. K. Majamaa & A.-R. Lehtinen, 2022. "An Analysis of Finnish Debtors Who Defaulted in 2014–2016 Because of Unsecured Credit Products," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 45(4), pages 595-617, December.
    11. Lodermeier, Alison, 2024. "Credit access and housing insecurity: Evidence from winter utility shutoff protections," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 230(C).
    12. Leandro Carvalho & Arna Olafsson & Dan Silverman, 2019. "Misfortune and Mistake: The Financial Conditions and Decision-making Ability of High-cost Loan Borrowers," NBER Working Papers 26328, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    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. Danisewicz, Piotr & Elard, Ilaf, 2023. "The real effects of financial technology: Marketplace lending and personal bankruptcy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    15. Ryszard Kowalski & Grzegorz Wałęga, 2022. "Regulation of Usury: Justification, Consequences, and Some Lessons from Polish Experience," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 2, pages 57-73.
    16. Guttman-Kenney, Benedict & Firth, Chris & Gathergood, John, 2023. "Buy now, pay later (BNPL) ...on your credit card," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).
    17. Shihan Xie & Victoria Wenxin Xie & Xu Zhang, 2024. "Extreme Weather and Low-Income Household Finance: Evidence from Payday Loans," Staff Working Papers 24-1, Bank of Canada.
    18. Gao, Mingze & Leung, Henry & Liu, Linhui & Qiu, Buhui, 2023. "Consumer behaviour and credit supply: Evidence from an Australian FinTech lender," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    19. Wang, Jialan & Burke, Kathleen, 2022. "The effects of disclosure and enforcement on payday lending in Texas," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(2), pages 489-507.
    20. Megan Doherty Bea & K. Bley, 2022. "(Un)conditional consumer protections in high‐cost lending regulation: Impacts on local lending geographies," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(4), pages 1561-1596, December.

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