Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/189929 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
Sveriges Riksbank Working Paper Series No. 329
Publisher: 
Sveriges Riksbank, Stockholm
Abstract: 
This paper documents that increased scarcity right before a payday causally impacts credit choices. Exploiting a transfer system that randomly assigns the number of days between paydays to Swedish social welfare recipients, we find that low educated borrowers behave as if they are more present-biased when making credit choices during days when their budget constraints are exogenously tighter. As a result their default risk and debt servicing cost increase significantly. Access to mainstream credit or liquidity buffers cannot explain our results. Our findings highlight that increased levels of economic scarcity risk to reinforce the conditions of poverty.
Subjects: 
household finance
present bias
scarcity
credit choice
JEL: 
G02
G23
D14
D81
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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