The boom in the subprime mortgage market yielded many loans with high LTV ratios. From a large proprietary database on subprime mortgages, we find that choice of mortgage rate type is not linear in loan sizes. A fixed rate mortgage contract is a popular choice when loan size, measured by LTV...

Guaranteed Asset Protection (GAP) shields purchasers from financial risks of losses exceeding insured collateral values if vehicles become total losses. Yet surprisingly little is known about the sales of this product, or consumers' attitudes toward it. In this study, we report the results of a...

A variety of consumer credit products have particular notoriety because of their high prices. The products include some small personal loans, pawnbroker loans, payday loans, automobile title loans, and refund anticipation loans. Critics of these credit products see little or no benefit to using...

Interest includes compensation not only for forbearance (forgoing current income for future income) and risk bearing but also compensation for expenses incurred to originate, service, and collect loans. The latter expenses are largely fixed, not varying much with the amount of credit

Economic theory predicts that a binding interest-rate cap decreases credit availability for high-risk borrowers. On March 23, 2021, Illinois imposed an all-in interest-rate cap of 36 percent per annum for loans under $40,000 from non-bank and non-credit-union lenders. We use credit bureau data...