There is little evidence on how the large market for credit score improvement products affects consumers or credit … market efficiency. A randomized encouragement design on a standard credit builder loan (CBL) identifies null average effects … on whether consumers have a credit score and the score itself, with important heterogeneity: those with loans outstanding …

Standard economic theory says that unsecured, high-interest, short-term debt -- such as borrowing via credit cards and … transitory income shock of unemployment. Instead, individuals smooth their credit card debt and overdrafts by adjusting … consumption. We first use detailed longitudinal information on debit and credit card transactions, account balances, and credit …

This paper examines the use of credit derivatives by US bank holding companies from 1999 to 2003 with assets in excess … only 19 large banks out of 345 use credit derivatives. Though few banks use credit derivatives, the assets of these banks … buyers of credit protection and disclose using credit derivatives to hedge loans. Banks are more likely to be net protection …

assets, based almost entirely on a credit risk criterion. The paper provides both a theoretical and empirical framework for … credit risk. For example, our findings indicate that the RBC weights overpenalize home mortgages, which have an average … credit loss of 13 basis points, relative to commercial and consumer loans. The RBC rules also contain a significant bias …

-constrained investors to take excessive risks. Ignored are unconstrained investors speculating on higher prices during credit booms. To … encouraged a bank/brokerage-credit-fueled stock-market bubble. The direct effect is a 25 cent increase in a stock's market …

A growing literature shows that credit indicators forecast aggregate real outcomes. While researchers have proposed … simple, frictionless, model explains empirical findings commonly attributed to credit cycles. Our key assumption is that … firms have heterogeneous exposures to underlying economy-wide shocks. This leads to endogenous dispersion in credit quality …

Credit booms are not rare and usually precede financial crises. However, some end in a crisis (bad booms) while others … do not (good booms). We document that credit booms start with an increase in productivity, which subsequently falls much … faster during bad booms. We develop a model in which crises happen when credit markets change to an information regime with …