Search Results
Working Paper
The role of race in mortgage lending: revisiting the Boston Fed study
This paper reexamines claims that non-economic discrimination persists in mortgage loan origination decisions. I find that racial differences in outcomes do exist, as minorities fare worse regarding debt-to-income requirements but better for loan-to-value requirements. Overall, significant racial differentials exist only for ``marginal'' applicants and are not present for those with higher incomes or those with no credit problems. Thus, the claim that non-economic discrimination is a general phenomenon is refuted. Further, I can say little regarding the existence of discrimination among ...
Working Paper
Small firm credit market discrimination, SBA-guaranteed lending, and local market economic performance
We empirically test whether SBA-guaranteed lending has a greater impact on economic performance in markets with a high percentage of potential minority small businesses. This hypothesis is predicated on priors related to three overlapping assumptions. These three assumptions are: (1) The classic type of credit rationing developed in the seminal paper by Stiglitz and Weiss (1981) is more likely to occur in markets with a higher per capita percentage of minority small businesses because such markets are more likely to have more severe information asymmetry problems, (2) SBA-guaranteed lending ...
Working Paper
Credit card redlining revisited
Using a proprietary dataset of credit bureau records, Cohen-Cole (2008) finds that banks set credit limits on revolving accounts based in part on the racial composition of the neighborhood in which each borrower resides. This paper evaluates the evidence presented in that working paper using the same proprietary database of credit bureau records. The replication effort presented in this paper suggests that decisions about how to calculate the variables used in that study may have resulted in the unnecessary exclusion of one-fifth of available observations from the estimation samples and may ...
Journal Article
Redlining or red herring?
Journal Article
Errors in variables and lending discrimination
Working Paper
Racial differences in short-run earnings stabilityand implications for credit markets
This paper examines the claim that observed racial differences in rejection rates for mortgage applications, which persist after controlling for many relevant factors, are due to racial differences in short-run earnings stability, which has not typically been included in empirical tests. The evidence does not support the proposition that blacks suffer from greater earnings instability than comparable whites, as few consistent significant differences between black and white earnings volatility are found. Only in the case of drastic earnings shocks with persistent effects does the possibility ...
Journal Article
Information dynamics and CRA strategy
A look at how the quantity and source of information flowing to lenders can affect their credit decisions, and an argument that lenders should take advantage of the CRA provisions that allow them to address their obligations through joint-lending programs and qualified investments.
Journal Article
The fair lending laws and their enforcement
Working Paper
On the economics of discrimination in credit markets
This paper develops a general equilibrium model of both taste-based and statistical discrimination in credit markets. We find that both types of discrimination have similar predictions for intergroup differences in loan terms. The commonly held view has been that if there exists taste-based discrimination, loans approved to minority borrowers would have higher expected profitability than to majorities with comparable credit background. We show that the validity of this profitability view depends crucially on how expected loan profitability is measured. We also show that there must exist ...