JournalofFinancialEconomics146(2022)90–118ContentslistsavailableatScienceDirectJournalofFinancialEconomicsjournalhomepage:www.elsevier.com/locate/jfecCanFinTechreducedisparitiesinaccesstofinance?EvidencefromthePaycheckProtectionProgramIsilErela,b,c,JackLiebersohnd,∗aTheOhioStateUniversity,DepartmentofFinance,Columbus,43210OH,USAbNBER,UnitedStatescECGI,BelgiumdUniversityofCalifornia,Irvine,DepartmentofEconomics,3151SocialSciencesPlaza,Irvine,CA92617,USAarticleinfoArticlehistory:Received20November2020Revised16May2022Accepted17May2022Availableonline27July2022JELclassification:E6G21G23G28G38H25Keywords:FinancialtechnologyPPPCoronavirusFinancialinclusionNonbankOnlinebankabstractNewtechnologypromisestoexpandthesupplyoffinancialservicestosmallbusinessespoorlyservedbybanks.Doesitsucceed?WestudytheresponseofFinTechtofinancialser-vicesdemandcreatedbytheintroductionofthePaycheckProtectionProgram.FinTechisdisproportionatelyusedinZIPcodeswithfewerbankbranches,lowerincomes,andmoreminorityhouseholds,andinindustrieswithfewerbankingrelationships.ItisalsogreaterincountieswheretheeconomiceffectsoftheCOVID-19pandemicweremoresevere.Sub-stitutionbetweenFinTechandbanksiseconomicallysmall,implyingthatFinTechmostlyexpands,ratherthanredistributes,thesupplyoffinancialservices.©2022ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved.1.IntroductionTheCOVID-19pandemiccreated“acrisislikenoother,”withaglobaleconomiccontractionof3.1percentin2020.1Tosupportsmallbusinessesthroughthecrisis,theU.S.governmentcreatedthePaycheckProtectionProgram(PPP),whichofferedguaranteedandpotentially-forgivablesmallbusinessesloans.2With$669billiontobedisbursedoveraperiodofafewmonthsin2020,thePPPwas∗Correspondingauthor.E-mailaddresses:erel@fisher.osu.edu(I.Erel),cjlieber@uci.edu(J.Liebersohn).1WorldEconomicOutlookUpdate,InternationalMonetaryFund,Octo-ber2021.unprecedentedinspeedandscale.3Tomeettheextraordi-narydemandfortheloans,theSmallBusinessAdministra-tion(SBA)madethelast-minute,first-time-everdecisiontoapproveanumberofnon-tradit...
