We use individual-level mortgage application data to empirically test for scale economies in neighborhood lending, and find evidence of significant economies associated with the scale of operation of individual lenders in a neighborhood. The inability to exploit these economies of scale is found...

This paper examines how bank merger and acquisition activity affected small business lending in local U.S. banking markets between 1994 and 2000, focusing particularly on the role that community banks played in determining the ultimate effects of consolidation. During the 1994-1997 period, we...

Since 1975, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) has required most mortgage lending institutions to disclose to the public information about the home loans they originate or purchase during a calendar year. In using these data, however, researchers need to be aware of a number of issues and...

This paper examines how bank small business lending in local markets was related to bank merger activity during the mid-1990s. The authors use deposit data reported at the branch level to impute the distribution of bank small business loans across urban and rural markets; they then study the...

In many metropolitan areas (MSAs) newspapers post mortgage terms for lenders in a manner designed to permit an easy comparison of discount points and note rates. Using these advertised rates for 73 lenders in three MSAs we examine 1) how applicants respond to short-run changes in relative rates,...

This paper seeks to address questions about both the need for the CommunityReinvestment Act (CRA) and its efficiency. Using data from a recent survey of theperformance and profitability of CRA-related lending activities, three main conclusionsemerge. First, there is evidence that a majority of...

Some have suggested that housing policy, embodied by the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and affordable housing goals of the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), caused the subprime crisis. We examine if these programs led to worse mortgage outcomes using two approaches. The first examines...