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Working Paper
The Opioid Epidemic and Consumer Credit Supply: Evidence from Credit Cards
Using a unique data set of unsolicited credit card offer mailings by banks to consumers, we investigate how opioid abuse affects consumer credit supply in the U.S. To identify causal effects, we employ instrumental variables, propensity score matching, and contiguous counties techniques and control for varying local economic conditions and demographics. We find that banks contract credit supply to consumers in counties highly exposed to opioid abuse by offering higher interest rates, lower credit card limits, and fewer rewards and reducing credit offers overall. Further analyses using the ...