perapplicant fixed costs in screening. We then demonstrate that our theory fits the data better than the main alternative theory … already in the literature, which supposes cutoff rules are exogenously used by securitizers. Furthermore, we use our theory to …

research has hypothesized that these cutoff rules result from a securitization rule of thumb. Under this theory, an observed … jump in defaults at the cutoff would imply that securitization led to lax screening. We argue instead that originators … model that rationalizes such an origination rule of thumb. Under this alternative theory, jumps in default are not evidence …