EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Digital Debt Collection and Ecologies of Consumer Overindebtedness

DawnBurton

Economic Geography, 2020, vol. 96, issue 3, 244-265

Abstract: New digital financial technologies (fintech) are changing the contours of the consumer debt industry. The aim of this article is to address the challenges that these shifts pose for the operation and regulation of the debt collection industry and how they map onto existing spatial ecologies of consumer overindebtedness. Two ideal types of consumer debt ecosystems are developed: a mainstream ecology based on traditional modes of operating that include some practices that have existed for centuries; and a new digital ecology comprising new digital entrants that use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data mining. A fourfold framework provides a lens through which the new fintech debt ecology is analyzed: debt repayment, debt reporting, debt accounting, and debt prevention. The challenges digital debt collection pose for financial exclusion, digital inequality, the digital divide, and the implications for policy makers and regulators are discussed.

Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00130095.2020.1762486 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:96:y:2020:i:3:p:244-265

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/recg20

DOI: 10.1080/00130095.2020.1762486

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Geography is currently edited by James Murphy

More articles in Economic Geography from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-20
Handle: RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:96:y:2020:i:3:p:244-265