Search Results
Briefing
Are Some Homebuyers Strategically Transferring Climate Risks to Lenders?
Recent empirical research suggests that certain homebuyers may be strategically transferring climate risks to banks via the mortgage market, and banks may be transferring such risks to government-sponsored enterprises via securitization. The evidence highlights the nuanced ways in which participants in the financial markets strategically adapt to climate change.
Report
Clicking for Credit: Experiences of Online Lender Applicants from the Small Business Credit Survey
This report presents findings on the experiences of small businesses seeking credit from online lenders, based on data from the 2021 Small Business Credit Survey (SBCS). According to findings, firms that apply to online lenders are more likely to be newer and have fewer employees, lower revenues, and weaker credit scores. In addition, Black- and Hispanic-owned firms are more likely than white- and Asian-owned firms to report that they applied to an online lender. Furthermore, contrary to prior SBCS findings, online-lender applicants were less likely than bank applicants to be approved for the ...
Working Paper
Does Risk-Taking Increase or Decrease with Higher Interest Rates?
We present a framework that accounts for how interest rates affect risk-taking by borrowers indirectly, by changing the borrower’s demand for credit (investment size). We find that this borrowing demand effect runs counter to the direct borrowing rate effect, and risk-taking can increase or decrease with higher rates depending on the relative strength of these effects. We show that the borrowing rate effect dominates when the borrower’s share of project returns is increasing in investment, so risk-taking increases with interest rates. However, the borrowing demand effect dominates when ...