Evidence on Discrimination in Mortgage Lending

Ladd, Helen F.

doi:10.1257/jep.12.2.41

This setting lets you change the way you view articles. You can choose to have articles open in a dialog window, a new tab, or directly in the same window.

Open in Dialog
Open in New Tab
Open in same window

Journal of Economic Perspectives: Vol. 12 No. 2 (Spring 1998)

JEP Volume. 12, Issue 2 | left

Previous Article Next Article right

Expand

Quick Tools:

Print Article Summary Email Link to this Article Export Citation
Sign up for Email Alerts Follow us on Twitter

Explore:

JEP - All Issues

Evidence on Discrimination in Mortgage Lending

Article Citation

Ladd, Helen F. 1998. "Evidence on Discrimination in Mortgage Lending." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 12(2): 41-62.

DOI: 10.1257/jep.12.2.41

Abstract

Much of the controversy about whether mortgage lenders discriminate against minorities can be explained in terms of the confusion about how to define discrimination. Based on the legal definition, careful studies of loan denial rates, such as that done by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, represent an appropriate method for testing for discrimination by lenders. Based on that study, it is quite clear that lenders discriminate. The fact that minorities have higher default rates on average than whites is irrelevant to the interpretation of the race coefficient in such models. Nonetheless, more research on and discussion about the relationship between the race of the applicant and delinquencies, defaults, and losses would be desirable.

Article Full-Text Access

Full-text Article (Complimentary)

Authors

Ladd, Helen F. (Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke U)

JEL Classifications

J71: Labor Discrimination
G21: Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

Comments

View Comments on This Article (0) | Login to post a comment