Finance, Advertising, and Race
研究银行广告如何通过引导少数族裔选择劣质产品，加剧金融市场中的种族差异，以解放后首家面向非裔美国人的自由民储蓄银行为例，发现放松管制后广告增加导致更多非裔存款，但银行破产后损失惨重。
Abstract We study how bank advertising practices contribute to racial disparities in financial markets by steering minorities toward inferior products. We exploit a regulatory change that incentivizes deposit collection at the Freedman’s Savings Bank, the first institution to collect deposits from African Americans post-Emancipation, by facilitating misuse of depositor funds. After deregulation, advertising volume rises, particularly in African American newspapers, leading to increased deposits from Black depositors despite the bank’s insolvency. We identify persuasion as a key mechanism; prescriptive stereotypes and false claims likely amplify advertising’s impact on African Americans, exacerbating historically large depositor losses after the bank’s collapse.