A person’s credit report tells a story about their childhood. New research, released last month by Harvard’s Opportunity Insights, shows that a strong predictor of an adult’s bill-paying habits—the main determinant of credit scores—is the environment in which they grew up. The study, based on a sample of more than 25 million Americans, reveals lifelong differences in repayment behavior emerging by early adulthood according to race, hometown, and socioeconomic class.
What your credit score says about how, where you were raised
