Does Perceived Socio-Economic Status Impact Access To Credit In The Small Business Arena?

From November 1, 2020, to December 14, 2020, NCRC conducted multi-layered matched-pair tests of 22 different financial institutions. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of socio-economic status (SES), specifically perceived education, on the interactions between race and treatment in the small business pre-application arena. SES is defined by the American Psychological Association as the social standing or class of an individual or group and is often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation. In this paper, we conducted two different types of analysis: a marketplace audit that is a statistical analysis of the marketplace as a whole and a fair lending review of each matched-pair interaction.

NCRC

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