Poster #50 - Fintech and the Fringe Economy: Investigating variations by zip code poverty and racial composition 

• In Event: Saturday Poster Luncheon

Abstract

Access to financial products and services in the United States has long been unequal, the unprecedented rapid adoption of fintech in the banking sector has brought new opportunities and challenges for financial access. Existing fintech research has mostly focused on mortgage lending; no study has investigated how fintech adoption relates to alternative financial services, a growing fringe economy that commonly found in poor, minority-majority neighborhoods. With a uniquely merged dataset, this study investigates how neighborhood-level fintech use relates to alternative financial services in urban setting. Findings show that urban communities with more potential fintech use have fewer AFS presence, meanwhile neighborhood racial and ethnic characteristics remain important predictors of AFS use and economic stress in urban areas may foster AFS presence in the rapidly evolving fringe service market.  

Author

• Zibei Chen, University of Tennessee (Knoxville)
  Presenting Author