The Impact of Banking and Fringe Banking Regulation on the Number of Unbanked Americans

Ebonya Washington

Journal of Human Resources, 2006, vol. 41, issue 1

Abstract: Thirty-five to 45 percent of low-income American households do not possess a bank account. This statistic coupled with claims of price gouging by check cashers has prompted government intervention. I find that state legislation requiring banks to offer low-cost accounts slightly decreases the number of low-income minority unbanked households, but only with a substantial lag. Caps on check-cashing fees also lead to a small, but more immediate, reduction in the number of unbanked among this population. Because price caps may lead to a reduction in supply, welfare effects are indeterminate.

Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (24)

Downloads: (external link)
http://jhr.uwpress.org/cgi/reprint/XLI/1/106
A subscription is required to access pdf files. Pay per article is available.

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:uwp:jhriss:v:41:y:2006:i:1:p106-137

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Human Resources from University of Wisconsin Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().