Banking on the Neighborhood? Inequalities in Older Adults' Access to Local Banking and Neighborhood Perceptions.

Abstract

Access to local banking represents an understudied dimension of neighborhood-based inequalities that could significantly influence older adults' perceptions of their neighborhood spaces in ways that matter for disparities in well-being. We evaluate disparities in banking access and then examine how local banking access informs older adults' perceptions of neighborhood collective efficacy and danger, above and beyond other neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics. We use nationally representative data from older adults in the United States who were interviewed at Round 3 of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project, linked with data on banks in respondents' residential and surrounding census tracts from the National Establishment Time-Series database, in a series of bivariate and multivariable regression analyses. White older adults and those with higher levels of education have significantly greater local banking access than Black and Hispanic older adults and those with lower levels of education. Higher rates of local banking institutions are associated with significantly lower perceptions of neighborhood danger, but not with perceived collective efficacy. This finding emerges when accounting for neighborhood concentrated disadvantage and physical disorder. Local banks may represent neighborhood investment and the broader economic vitality of a community, as well as the ability of communities to meet older adults' everyday needs in ways that enhance older residents' feelings of safety. Increasing access to local financial institutions may help attenuate neighborhood-based contributors to inequalities in health and well-being among the older adult population.