The Unintended Consequences of Employer Credit Check Bans for Labor Markets

Over the last 15 years, 11 states have restricted employers’ access to the credit reports of job applicants. We estimate that county-level job vacancies have fallen by 5.5 percent in occupations affected by these laws relative to exempt occupations in the same counties and national-level vacancies for the same occupations. Crosssectional heterogeneity suggests that employers use credit reports as signals of a worker's ability to perform the job: vacancies fall more in counties with a large share of subprime residents, while they fall less for occupations with other commonly available signals. Vacancies fall most for occupations involving routine tasks, suggesting that credit reports contain information relevant for these types of jobs.

Impacts of Smoking Ban Policies on Restaurants in Seoul, South Korea: Analysis of Objective Sales Information

Background From July 2013 to January 2015, the smoking ban instituted in restaurants in South Korea gradually expanded to cover all restaurants and bars, moving by size of restaurant (≤99 m2, 100–149 m2, ≥150 m2). This study measured the impacts of the smoking ban for restaurants. Methods This study examined credit, check, or debit card sales data for every September and October from 2012 to 2015 in 711 census tracts in Seoul, South Korea. We accounted for total restaurant sales in each census tract. Our model controlled for the sales amounts for each census tract, type of restaurant, monthly business survey index, number of restaurants, daily average temperature, daily precipitation, and day of the week, and a dummy for census tract. Results These were some positive associations with increase in total sales. However, the significance of the coefficients was not consistent over this period. Overall, our results showed no significant negative effects of smoking ban policy on restaurants. Conclusions Smoking ban policies produced benefits in terms of health outcomes, without causing significant negative impacts on sales. Implications Although the owners of restaurants anticipated negative impacts on sales from smoking ban policies, the results of this study suggest that restaurants experienced no negative economic impacts on sales from policies with health benefits, which suggest that it would be reasonable to promote and keep on the smoking ban. Also, it is important to apply smoking ban policy to all targets without exclusion.

Rent-To-Own Agreements: Purchases Or Rentals?

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The rent-to-own (RTO) business has emerged as an important component of the retailing sector. By offering immediate access to household goods for a small periodic fee without a credit check or down payment, RTO has strong appeal to low income and financially distressed consumers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>A common perception of RTO is that they are disguised, high-interest installment agreements as most consumers eventually acquire the contracted merchandise by making all scheduled payments. We examine the nature of these agreements by using a unique data set of more than 350 thousand transactions drawn from 100 RTO stores in 46 states. Our main result, derived from an analysis of disposition and duration, is that RTO agreements are more frequently used for short-term needs rather than as a method of acquisition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Legislative and legal efforts to classify RTO agreements as primarily installment contracts cannot be justified by their pattern of use in the marketplace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span></span></span></p>