Research has made clear that neighbourhood conditions affect racial inequality. We examine how living in minority neighbourhoods affects ease of access to conventional banks versus alternative financial institutions (AFIs) such as check cashers and payday lenders, which some have called predatory. Based on more than 6 million queries, we compute the difference in the time required to walk, drive or take public transport to the nearest bank versus AFI from the middle of every block in each of 19 of the largest cities in the United States. The results suggest that race is strikingly more important than class: even after numerous conditions are accounted for, the AFI is more often closer than the bank in low-poverty racial/ethnic minority neighbourhoods than in high-poverty white ones. Results are driven not by the absence of banks but by the prevalence of AFIs in minority areas. Gaps appear too large to reflect simple differences in preferences.

研究表明，邻里条件会影响种族不平等。我们研究了居住在少数族裔社区如何影响使用传统银行与其他金融机构 (AFI) 的关系，例如支票兑现员和发薪日贷方，有些人称之为掠夺性。基于超过 600 万个查询，我们计算了美国 19 个最大城市中每个街区的步行、驾车或乘坐公共交通工具到最近的银行与 AFI 所需时间的差异。结果表明，种族比阶级更重要：即使考虑了许多条件，在低贫困种族/少数民族社区中，AFI 比在高贫困白人社区中更接近银行。结果的驱动因素不是没有银行，而是少数民族地区非金融机构的普遍存在。差距似乎太大，无法反映偏好的简单差异。