This paper brings together two seemingly unrelated branches of the literature that focuses on different aspects of a bank's interaction with its borrowers: the relative priority of bank debt, and the role of banks as "relationship lenders". Specifically, we show that bank seniority plays an...

This paper argues for the importance of separating the bundled good of housing into land and improvements, because locational amenities – which often constitute a significant portion of property value – are typically capitalized into the value of land but not the value of the...

In this article we make two contributions toward a better understanding of the causes and consequences of discrimination in credit markets. First, we develop an explicit theoretical model of loan underwriting in which lenders use a simple Bayesian updating process to evaluate applicant...

The authors' simple model of the mortgage underwriting process provides a framework within which to define discrimination and various notions of the default rate. By providing those with differing views a common framework for discussing their positions, the model clarifies and reconciles some of...

An examination of the impact of APR violations, demonstrating that the efficiency of such violations depends on the specific contracting problem with which a firm and its creditors are faced, and that as a result, an optimal bankruptcy institution should allow contract participants to decide ex...

While many perceive a dark side to the use of overrides in the mortgage underwriting process, Stanley Longhofer of Wichita State University disagrees. This article concludes the five-part series on credit scoring and fair mortgage lending.