Regulators express growing concern over quot;predatory lending,quot; which we taketo mean lending that extracts excessive rent from borrowers. We present a rational model of consumer credit in which such lending is possible, and we identify the circumstances in which it arises with and without...

We develop and test a model of mortgage underwriting, with particular reference to the role of credit bureau scores. In our model scores are used in a standardized fashion, which reflects the prevalence of automated underwriting in industry practice. We show that our model has implications for...

We develop a simple model in which financial imperfections can serve to stabilize aggregate fluctuations and not merely aggravate them as in much of the previous literature; we term this a financial decelerator.In our model agents borrow to purchase housing and secure their loans with this...