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Paige Marta Skiba

Professor of Law
Professor of Economics
2022-23 FedEx Research Professor

Paige Marta Skiba has conducted innovative research in behavioral law and economics and commercial law. Her current research focuses on the causes and consequences of borrowing on high-interest credit, such as payday loans, auto-title loans and pawnshops, and labor arbitration. She has received numerous research grants and fellowships from institutions such as the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the National Institute on Aging, the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, the Burch Center for Tax Policy and Public Finance, and the Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy.

Professor Skiba serves on the board of the American Law and Economics Association and the Society for Empirical Legal Studies. Professor Skiba has spearheaded the Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee for the American Law and Economics Association in her time on the board. She is also currently chair of the Association of American Law Schools’ Law and Economic Section.

She has been a visiting scholar at the London School of Economics, Universite Paris Nanterre, Montana State University, and the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley. She earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, in 2007.

Skiba teaches Bankruptcy and Behavioral Law and Economics to J.D. students. She also teaches Law and Economics, Behavioral Law and Economics, and Econometrics for Legal Research in the Ph.D. Program in Law and Economics. She has served on more than a dozen students’ Ph.D. dissertation committees at Vanderbilt, all of whom have secured academic or industry positions immediately after graduation.

Research Interests

Behavioral economics, applied microeconomics, law and economics, banking and finance

Courses

Additional Courses

Behavioral Law and Economics I
Behavioral Law and Economics II
Econometrics for Legal Research
Law and Economics Theory I


Representative Publications

  • "Time to Repay or Time to Delay? The Effect of Having More Time Before a Payday Loan Is Due," 14 American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 91 (2022) (with Susan Payne Carter, Kyan Liu and Justin Sydnor)
    Full Text | WWW
  • "Do Payday Loans Cause Bankruptcy?" Journal of Law and Economics, August 2019 (with Jeremy Tobacman)
    Full Text | WWW
  • "Payday Loan Choices and Consequences," 47 Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking 223 (2014) (with Neil Bhutta and Jeremy Tobacman)
    Full Text | SSRN
  • "Tax Rebates and the Cycle of Payday Borrowing," 16 American Law and Economics Review 550 (2014)
    Full Text | SSRN | WWW
  • "Information Asymmetries in Consumer Lending: Evidence from Payday Lending," 5 American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 256 (2013) (with Will Dobbie)
    Full Text | SSRN
  • "The Ticket to Easy Street? The Financial Consequences of Winning the Lottery," 93 Review of Economics and Statistics 961 (2011) (with Scott Hankins and Mark Hoekstra). Featured in New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today
    Full Text | SSRN
  • "Payday Loans and Credit Cards: New Liquidity and Credit Scoring Puzzles?" American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, May 2009 (with Sumit Agarwal and Jeremy Tobacman)
    Full Text | SSRN
  • "Dude, Where's My Car Title? The Law, Behavior, and Economics of Title Lending Markets," University of Illinois Law Review (forthcoming 2014) (Selected for the 2013 Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum)
    Full Text | SSRN
  • "Pawnshops, Behavioral Economics and Self-Regulation," 32 Review of Banking & Financial Law 193 (2012) (with Susan Payne Carter)
    Full Text | PDF
  • "Regulation of Payday Loans: Misguided?", 69(2) Washington and Lee Law Review 1023 (2012) (symposium issue)
    Full Text | HEIN | WWW