ACCI 2026 Conference
April 13–15, 2026
Hilton Long Beach, Long Beach, CA, USA
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The date, time, and room assignment of YOUR presentation is SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
Proposal authors can use this tool to see where they have been placed in the program agenda for an Oral or Poster Session.
Scroll down to search by the Submitter or Author Name, by Date/Time, or by Keywords by expanding FILTERS.
Confirm your place in the schedule by following the instructions that were emailed to you. Each presentation must have a separate paid registration. Contact the ACCI office immedicately by email at admin@consumerinterests.org to report any conflict, all corrections to the details of the presentation (including author names and the order they are listed as this is how it will be in the final program), or if you have any questions. Please be sure to reference the session title(s), date(s), and time(s) when you contact us.
P135 The Impact of Payday Lending Access on Household Consumption Patterns: Evidence from Ohio's Payday Lending Reform
Short Description
This study examines the causal impact of payday lending access restrictions on household consumption patterns using Ohio's 2018 Fairness in Lending Act as a quasi-experimental setting. We employ a difference-in-differences approach comparing employed, low-income households in West Virginia and Pennsylvania counties bordering Ohio (treatment group) with similar households in non-border counties (control group). Using NielsenIQ Home Scanner data from 2016-2019, we find that households losing cross-border payday lending access experienced significant decreases in total monthly spending. Disaggregated analysis reveals that spending reductions primarily occurred in necessities, particularly food, rather than discretionary items like alcohol and tobacco. Alcohol spending showed no significant change, while tobacco spending declined only marginally. These findings challenge the welfare rationale underlying payday lending restrictions, suggesting that such policies may force vulnerable populations to reduce essential consumption rather than eliminating harmful spending behaviors, potentially exacerbating rather than alleviating financial hardship among low-income households.
Type of presentation
Accepted Poster Presentation