Working paper
Pushing Boundaries: Political Redistricting and Consumer Credit
Abstract. Consumers lose access to credit when their congressional district boundaries are irregularly redrawn to benefit a political party (i.e., are gerrymandered). We identify this effect by matching a longitudinal panel of consumer credit data with changes in congressional district boundaries following decennial censuses. Reductions in credit access are concentrated in states that allow elected politicians to draw political boundaries and in districts where subsequent congressional elections are less competitive. We find similar reductions in credit access when state senate district boundaries are irregularly redrawn and when states make it more difficult for constituents to vote. Overall, our findings are consistent with theories suggesting that less-competitive political races reduce politicians’ incentives to cater to their constituents’ preferences.
Keywords: gerrymandering, redistricting, consumer credit, credit access, political competition, voting restrictions, political economy.
In brief
Gerrymandering reduces people’s access to credit.
Matching a long-running panel of consumer credit data to changes in congressional district boundaries after each census, the paper finds that consumers lose access to credit when their districts are irregularly redrawn to favor a political party. The losses are concentrated in states where elected politicians draw the maps and in districts whose later elections are less competitive, and similar declines follow gerrymandered state senate maps and laws that make voting harder. The results fit theories in which less competitive races weaken politicians’ incentives to serve their constituents.
| Panel A. Design | ||
|---|---|---|
| Question | Does gerrymandering reduce people’s access to credit? | |
| Setting | Changes in congressional district boundaries after each decennial census | |
| Data | A longitudinal panel of consumer credit data | |
| Method | Consumers whose districts are irregularly redrawn compared with others | |
| Panel B. Main findings | ||
| Credit access after gerrymandering | Falls | |
| Larger declines | States where elected politicians draw the maps; districts with less competitive elections | |
| Similar declines | Gerrymandered state senate maps; laws that make voting harder | |
Summarized from the paper. See the paper for exact estimates and specifications.
Read and cite
- Working paper, SSRN
Akey, Pat, Christine Dobridge, Rawley Z. Heimer, and Stefan Lewellen. “Pushing Boundaries: Political Redistricting and Consumer Credit.” Working paper.
@unpublished{heimer2017pushing,
author = {Akey, Pat and Dobridge, Christine and Heimer, Rawley Z. and Lewellen, Stefan},
title = {Pushing Boundaries: Political Redistricting and Consumer Credit},
note = {Working paper},
year = {2017},
url = {https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3031604}
}
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- Topics
- Consumer credit and debt; Consumer protection and financial regulation
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