In this article, we use a corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework to analyze the payday loan industry by critically examining its practices from an economic, legal, and ethical perspective. Payday loans are essentially a very high cost, unsecured, short‐term personal loan. Given the inherent nature of the product being offered, the industry appears on the face of it to be in a position to potentially exploit vulnerable consumers in pursuit of profits. With this concern in mind, our analysis investigates the following three issues: Can the payday loan industry currently be considered to be acting in a socially responsible manner? If the industry cannot be considered to be socially responsible, should it be further regulated? If the industry should be further regulated, how should it be regulated? To address these issues, we first provide a brief historical overview of payday loans. Second, we describe the important characteristics of payday loans and how the industry operates. Third, we draw on various sources of evidence to demonstrate that the payday loan industry, while fulfilling its basic economic obligations, falls outside of both the legal and ethical domains of the Three Domain Model of CSR. Based on our analysis, our conclusion is that the payday loan industry requires additional government legal regulation, particularly with respect to allowable fees, and we conclude that there is a strong ethical case for banning payday loans altogether.

中文翻译：

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发薪日贷款企业社会责任分析

在本文中，我们使用企业社会责任 (CSR) 框架，通过从经济、法律和道德的角度批判性地审查其实践来分析发薪日贷款行业。发薪日贷款本质上是一种成本非常高的、无担保的短期个人贷款。鉴于所提供产品的固有性质，从表面上看，该行业似乎有能力利用脆弱的消费者来追求利润。考虑到这一点，我们的分析调查了以下三个问题： 目前是否可以认为发薪日贷款行业以对社会负责的方式行事？如果不能认为该行业具有社会责任感，是否应进一步监管？如果行业需要进一步监管，应该如何监管？为了解决这些问题，我们首先简要介绍发薪日贷款的历史概况。其次，我们描述了发薪日贷款的重要特征以及该行业的运作方式。第三，我们利用各种证据来源证明发薪日贷款行业在履行其基本经济义务的同时，不属于企业社会责任三领域模型的法律和道德领域。根据我们的分析，我们的结论是发薪日贷款行业需要额外的政府法律监管，特别是在可允许的费用方面，我们得出的结论是，完全禁止发薪日贷款具有很强的道德理由。我们利用各种证据来源证明发薪日贷款行业在履行其基本经济义务的同时，不属于企业社会责任三领域模型的法律和道德领域。根据我们的分析，我们的结论是发薪日贷款行业需要额外的政府法律监管，特别是在可允许的费用方面，我们得出的结论是，完全禁止发薪日贷款具有很强的道德理由。我们利用各种证据来源证明发薪日贷款行业在履行其基本经济义务的同时，不属于企业社会责任三领域模型的法律和道德领域。根据我们的分析，我们的结论是发薪日贷款行业需要额外的政府法律监管，特别是在可允许的费用方面，我们得出的结论是，完全禁止发薪日贷款具有很强的道德理由。