We study whether social capital affects low-income borrowers' decisions to terminate their mortgage loans, originated after church leaders connected these borrowers with a lender. Loan termination is modeled in a competing-risks framework, where social capital, demographic and religious...

Published research on credit counseling and mortgage termination is surprisingly scarce, despite substantial growth in this industry. While the purpose of counseling is to assist low-income borrowers to improve their handling of debt and thereby reduce default, counseling may also improve the...