Social Work Commons^™

Penny And Pound: Unpacking The Impacts Of The Fringe Economy On Household Economic Wellbeing, Zibei Chen

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As an increasing number of American families cope with chronic financial stability, they have withdrawn from traditional financial systems and instead have chosen to participate in the fringe economy where alternative financial services (AFS) and products are costly. Although individuals’ lives have become highly financialized, the issue of financial inclusion is not well understood. Research to date primarily has focused on the banked and unbanked group, yet, evidence indicates the presence of a sizeable group of people who are underbanked. Using a posttest-only, nonequivalent control group quasi-experimental design, this dissertation study investigated banking statuses (unbanked, underbanked, and banked), and AFS …