We study the impact of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) on access to consumer credit since 1999 using an individual-level panel and three distinct identification strategies: a regression discontinuity design centered on a CRA-eligibility cutoff; a comparison of neighboring census blocks; and...

We explore how personality traits are related to household borrowing behavior. Using survey data representative for the Netherlands, we consider the Big Five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, extraversion and neuroticism), as well as the belief that one is master of...

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown once again that it is often the poor who suffer from economic downturn in times of crisis. As was the case in the financial crisis of 2008, we now have an opportunity to rethink the role of consumer credit in society and design and create a legal framework that...

With the aim of quantifying the effect of the decrease in interest rates on consumer loans (both credit cards and personal loans, in local currency to the non-financial private sector) in Argentina between March and December 2020, monthly error correction models are estimated, and counterfactual...

Roll rates and net flow rates can be seen as the evolution of ageing of accounts receivable and Markov chains. They are accepted methodologies to model the behavior of non-performing consumer loans by buckets and to predict losses, but we find that quite often they are wrongly used as...

We specify and estimate a lifecycle model of consumption, housing demand and labor supply in an environment where individuals may file for bankruptcy or default on their mortgage. Uncertainty in the model is driven by house price shocks, education specific productivity shocks, and catastrophic...

There is no clear theoretical prediction about whether a positive income shock stemming from higher remittances should complement or substitute for credit. Accordingly, existing studies in the empirical literature have found opposing results. This paper reconciles these seemingly contradictory...

We use an agent-based stock-flow consistent model of a closed economy without technological change that considers different classes of households, status consumption and a Minskyan banking sector to analyze the relationship between rising saving rates, the accumulation and distribution of...

With the aim of quantifying the effect of the decrease in interest rates on consumer loans (both credit cards and personal loans, in local currency to the non-financial private sector) in Argentina between March and December 2020, monthly error correction models are estimated, and counterfactual...

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown once again that it is often the poor who suffer from economic downturn in times of crisis. As was the case in the financial crisis of 2008, we now have an opportunity to rethink the role of consumer credit in society and design and create a legal framework that...

We establish two underappreciated facts about costly search. First, unless demand is perfectly inelastic, search frictions can result in significant deadweight loss by decreasing consumption. Second, whenever cross-price elasticities are non-zero, costly search in one market also affects...

Search costs for lenders when evaluating potential borrowers are driven by the quality of the underwriting model and by access to data. Both have undergone radical change over the last years, due to the advent of big data and machine learning. For some, this holds the promise of inclusion and...

Search costs for lenders when evaluating potential borrowers are driven by the quality of the underwriting model and by access to data. Both have undergone radical change over the last years, due to the advent of big data and machine learning. For some, this holds the promise of inclusion and...

This paper investigates the degree of dispersion in the loan pricing of commercial banks and its association with competitive conditions in the banking industry of a large emerging economy. To quantify the lending rate variability in consumer loans, we utilize a new indexation mechanism...

This paper utilizes high-quality transaction data from the largest bank in Denmark to study what drives the demand for high-cost consumption loans. I investigate the extent to which adverse events drive loan demand, or if it is more likely to be explained by borrowers' personality traits. I find...

In this paper, I study the role of payday loan restrictions on suicide and overdose deaths. Payday lenders offer ``quick cash'' and charge high fees relative to the principle loan amounts. Concerns about payday loans trapping borrowers in debt have led 21 U.S. states and the District of Columbia...

We specify and estimate a lifecycle model of consumption, housing demand and labor supply in an environment where individuals may file for bankruptcy or default on their mortgage. Uncertainty in the model is driven by house price shocks, education specific productivity shocks, and catastrophic...

Governments regulate debt collectors to protect consumers from predatory practices. These restrictions may lower repayment, reducing the supply of mainstream credit and increasing demand for alternative credit. Using individual credit record data and a difference-in-differences design comparing...

Despite its traditionally “tight” social and legal culture, Singapore recently loosened its personal bankruptcy rules significantly. This reform paralleled quite similar moves in the West in recent decades, but it represents a watershed in Asian regulation of the challenges of rising...

Using new administrative data on all registered mortgage loan officers in the U.S. linked to the individual loan applications they process, we document three facts: (1) minority loan officers are under-represented in financial institutions, especially in small banks and shadow banks; (2) local...

Fintechs are believed to help expand credit access to underserved consumers without taking on additional risk. We compare the performance efficiency of LendingClub's unsecured personal loans with similar loans originated by banks. Using stochastic frontier estimation, we decompose the observed...

Because of the importance of credit reporting to the consumer finance system, the accuracy of credit reports is a perennial policy concern. Studies have found that a substantial minority of consumers have errors on their credit reports with the three nationwide consumer reporting agencies...

Borrowers with subprime auto loans typically pay high interest rates and frequently default on their loans. Interest payments could compensate lenders for borrowers’ default risk, and so the high interest rates paid by borrowers with subprime loans could be explained by their higher default...

In response to the economic hardships stemming from COVID-19, many U.S. card-issuing banks offered measures to assist their customers who were financially affected by the pandemic. Unlike previous disaster assistance programs that were typically short in duration and localized, the COVID-19...

In this paper, we create machine learning (ML) models to forecast home equity credit risk for individuals using a real-world dataset and demonstrate methods to explain the output of these ML models to make them more accessible to the end-user. We analyze the explainability of these models for...

Unsecured borrowing plays an important role for consumers in smoothing consumption. Each year, almost 40% of U.S. households have credit card debts and 4% borrow using a high-cost payday loan. This paper aims to explore the similarities and differences between both types of borrowers. Using the...

How do financial frictions affect household borrowing and default behavior? To what extent does frictional financial intermediation influence the welfare implications of consumer bankruptcy regulations? To quantitatively address these questions, I develop an Aiyagari-type model with consumer...

In this paper we empirically analyse the factors which determined consumer credit in Greece in the period before and after the financial liberalisation, while accounting for significant changes in structure due to the lifting of credit restrictions and the subsequent impressive boom of consumer...

This paper uses dynamic panel data methods to examine the determinants of nonperforming loans (NPLs) in the Greek banking sector, separately for each type of loan (consumer, business and mortgage loans). The study is motivated by the hypothesis that both macroeconomic and bank-specific variables...

This report examines how consumers’ financial profiles vary by levels of emergency savings. We use a new version of the Making Ends Meet survey and pair it with credit bureau data from our Consumer Credit Panel to provide a unique picture of consumers' financial profiles not available through...

We study the relative importance of asset-backed lending (ABL) and cash flow-based lending (CFBL) in auto finance. We find that negative durability shocks generated by vehicle discontinuations lead to increased loan-to-value ratios and down payments. These results are consistent with an ABL+CFBL...

Captive finance subsidiaries, vertically integrated lenders, create a potential channel for trade policy to affect consumer credit. Examining the Trump administration 2018 metal tariffs’ impact on auto manufacturers, we find consumers received worse auto loan terms from captive lenders after...

We use the 2012 South Carolina Department of Revenue data breach as a natural experiment to study how data breaches and news coverage about them affect consumers? interactions with the credit market and their use of credit. We find that some consumers directly exposed to the breach protected...