Seminarios Académicos

Abstract: In the $793 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), we examine metrics related to potential misreporting including non-registered businesses, multiple businesses at residential addresses, abnormally high implied compensation per employee, and large inconsistencies with jobs reported in another government program. All of these measuresconsistentlyconcentrateincertainFinTechlendersandarecross-verifiedbyseven additional measures. Suspicious lending heavily clusters in certain counties and zip codes, and the clustering is strongly related to social connections, consistent with spread through social media. Suspicious lending and FinTech market share increased significantly over time, and even suspicious loans are being overwhelmingly forgiven.