CAREER: The Emerging Political Economy of FringeTech Financial Services

职业：边缘科技金融服务的新兴政治经济

• 批准号: 2337719
• 负责人: Mallory SoRelle
• 金额: $ 50.69万
• 依托单位: Duke University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-07-01 至 2029-06-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2337719&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Emerging; Political; Economy; FringeTech

Millions of Americans struggle to make ends meet each month, but lower income people, younger people, and people from certain demographic categories are much less likely to have access to quality short-term financing to bridge budget gaps. Instead, these groups disproportionately turn to costly alternative financial services (AFS) like payday loans that can create a persistent cycle of debt. Recent innovations in financial technology (fintech) have dramatically reshaped the consumer loan market, including the rise of “fringetech”—digital financial technologies designed to compete with traditional AFS. Yet, we know little about the potentially significant economic and policy consequences of fringetech use for households who are struggling financially—especially low-wage workers who are relying on fringetech in growing numbers. This project will help advance national prosperity and welfare by expanding our understanding of who uses fringetech, how people’s reliance on fringetech is shaped by state rules that provide alternative financial resources (e.g., welfare), and how using fringetech influences people’s public behaviors. Findings will be disseminated to help inform emerging debates at the federal and state level about how best to regulate these new financial technologies. The project will also help train a diverse cohort of future scholars and practitioners in finance and fintech research. This CAREER research and teaching grant will achieve the following objectives: 1) analyze original, large-n survey data to systematically describe when and how different cohorts use fringetech to navigate liquidity problems; 2) utilize original qualitative borrower interviews and a dataset on state welfare, financial protection, and wage laws to analyze how state subsystems shape fringetech use for different cohorts; 3) analyze whether and how people’s fringetech use influences their preferences for economic rules and their public participation; 4) establish a topical lab and course, based on principles of inclusive pedagogy, to promote interest in and research concerning fringetech from students historically underrepresented in those fields; and 5) produce and disseminate research to inform emerging federal and state fringetech regulation, and create publicly available scorecards to help people track fringetech consumer protection in their state. This project will contribute to theories of 1) the welfare state, exploring how state welfare regimes influence financial decision-making; 2) participation, generating a theory of fringetech as a resource for civic engagement; and 3) feedback effects, analyzing how the design and implementation of state financial regulations shape people’s preferences. The project will generate novel quantitative and qualitative data about a highly salient regulatory issue for use by other researchers and practitioners.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

数以百万计的美国人每月都在努力维持生计，但是较低的收入人士和某些人口类别的人不太可能获得优质的短期融资来弥合预算差距。相反，这些团体不成比例地转向昂贵的替代金融服务（AFS），例如发薪日贷款，这些贷款可以创造持续的债务周期。金融技术的最新创新（Fintech）动态地重塑了消费贷款市场，包括“ Fringetech”的兴起，即旨在与传统AFS竞争的数字金融技术。但是，我们对FingeTech使用的潜在重大经济和政策后果知之甚少，因为在财务上挣扎的家庭，尤其是依靠越来越多的fingeTech的低薪工人。该项目将通过扩展我们对使用FringeTech的人的理解，人们对FringeTech的依赖如何受国家规则的依赖，从而有助于促进国家繁荣和福利，从而有助于提供替代财务资源（例如，福利）的国家规则，以及使用FringeTech如何影响人们的公共行为。调查结果将被传播，以帮助在联邦和州一级有关如何最好地规范这些新金融技术的新兴辩论。该项目还将有助于培训一群未来的学者和金融科技研究的学者和从业者。这项职业研究和教学赠款将实现以下目标：1）分析原始的大型N调查数据，以系统地描述何时以及如何使用FringeTech来解决流动性问题； 2）利用原始的定性借款人访谈和有关州福利，财务保护和工资法的数据集来分析州子系统如何塑造FringeTech对不同同类的使用； 3）分析人们的额外技术使用以及如何影响他们对经济规则和公众参与的偏好； 4）建立一个基于包容性教学法原则的主题实验室和课程，以促进对这些领域历史上人数不足的学生的兴趣和研究； 5）生产和传播研究，以告知新兴的联邦和州外国技术法规，并创建公开可用的记分卡，以帮助人们跟踪其州的FringeTech消费者保护。项目将促进1）福利国家的理论，探讨州福利制度如何影响财务决策； 2）参与，产生一种fringeTech作为公民参与资源的理论； 3）反馈效果，分析国家财务法规的设计和实施如何塑造人们的偏好。该项目将生成有关其他研究人员和从业人员使用的高度显着监管问题的新颖定量和定性数据。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的智力优点和更广泛的影响审查标准来评估NSF的法定任务。