Rourke O'Brien
Yale University
Department of Sociology
493 College Street
New Haven, CT 06511
E-Mail: 
Institutional Affiliation: Yale University
NBER Working Papers and Publications
July 2019 | Does Knowing Your FICO Score Change Financial Behavior? Evidence from a Field Experiment with Student Loan Borrowers
with Tatiana Homonoff, Abigail B. Sussman: w26048
One in five consumer credit accounts incur late fees each quarter. Evidence on the efficacy of regulations to improve behavior through enhanced disclosure of financial product attributes is mixed. We test a novel form of disclosure that provides borrowers with a personalized measure of their creditworthiness. In a field experiment with over 400,000 student loan borrowers, treatment group members received communications about the availability of their FICO Score. The intervention significantly reduced late payments and increased borrowers’ FICO Scores. Survey data show treatment group members were less likely to overestimate their FICO Scores, suggesting the intervention may correct for overoptimism. |
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