IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jconsa/v48y2014i1p124-146.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Protecting Mortgage Borrowers through Risk Awareness: Evidence from Variations in State Laws

Author

Listed:
  • J. MICHAEL COLLINS

Abstract

type="main" xml:id="joca12034-abs-0001"> In the wake of historic levels of mortgage defaults, regulators have debated how to regulate certain high-risk loans because of the risks of foreclosure involved. This study examines state laws that required loan applicants to receive information about the risks of foreclosure before they could sign certain mortgage contracts. Skeptics suggest that disclosures are largely ignored by consumers, yet controlling for other factors this study shows that loan applicants in states with enhanced warnings about foreclosures were more likely to reject high-cost refinance mortgage loan offers from a lender. Enhanced disclosures with features such as risk warnings, signatures, and referrals to counseling are being implemented as part of Dodd–Frank consumer finance reforms. This study suggests these strategies may be useful to balance consumer protection and access to high-risk credit .

Suggested Citation

  • J. Michael Collins, 2014. "Protecting Mortgage Borrowers through Risk Awareness: Evidence from Variations in State Laws," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 124-146, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:48:y:2014:i:1:p:124-146
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/joca.12034
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beales, Howard & Craswell, Richard & Salop, Steven, 1981. "Information Remedies for Consumer Protection," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(2), pages 410-413, May.
    2. Bond, Philip & Musto, David K. & Yilmaz, Bilge, 2009. "Predatory mortgage lending," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(3), pages 412-427, December.
    3. Bocian, Debbie Gruenstein & Ernst, Keith S. & Li, Wei, 2008. "Race, ethnicity and subprime home loan pricing," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 60(1-2), pages 110-124.
    4. Thomas A. Durkin, 2002. "Consumers and credit disclosures: credit cards and credit insurance," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), vol. 88(Apr), pages 201-213, April.
    5. Stigler, George J., 2011. "Economics of Information," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 5, pages 35-49.
    6. Helen F. Ladd, 1998. "Evidence on Discrimination in Mortgage Lending," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 12(2), pages 41-62, Spring.
    7. Raphael Bostic & Souphala Chomsisengphet & Kathleen Engel & Patricia McCoy & Anthony Pennington-Cross & Susan Wachter, 2012. "Mortgage Product Substitution and State Anti-predatory Lending Laws: Better Loans and Better Borrowers?," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 40(3), pages 273-294, September.
    8. John Y. Campbell, 2006. "Household Finance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(4), pages 1553-1604, August.
    9. W. Kip Viscusi & Wesley A. Magat & Joel Huber, 1987. "An Investigation of the Rationality of Consumer Valuations of Multiple Health Risks," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(4), pages 465-479, Winter.
    10. Hurst, Erik & Stafford, Frank, 2004. "Home Is Where the Equity Is: Mortgage Refinancing and Household Consumption," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 36(6), pages 985-1014, December.
    11. Keith D. Harvey & Peter J. Nigro, 2004. "Do Predatory Lending Laws Influence Mortgage Lending? An Analysis of the North Carolina Predatory Lending Law," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 435-456, December.
    12. Arrow, Kenneth J, 1982. "Risk Perception in Psychology and Economics," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 20(1), pages 1-9, January.
    13. Edward C. Norton & Hua Wang & Chunrong Ai, 2004. "Computing interaction effects and standard errors in logit and probit models," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 4(2), pages 154-167, June.
    14. Elke U. Weber & Richard A. Milliman, 1997. "Perceived Risk Attitudes: Relating Risk Perception to Risky Choice," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(2), pages 123-144, February.
    15. Bucks, Brian & Pence, Karen, 2008. "Do borrowers know their mortgage terms?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 218-233, September.
    16. David Laibson, 1997. "Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(2), pages 443-478.
    17. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    18. Lei Ding & Roberto G. Quercia & Carolina K. Reid & Alan M. White, 2012. "The Impact of Federal Preemption of State Antipredatory Lending Laws on the Foreclosure Crisis," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(2), pages 367-387, March.
    19. Ho, Giang & Pennington-Cross, Anthony, 2006. "The impact of local predatory lending laws on the flow of subprime credit," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 210-228, September.
    20. Marianne Bertrand & Adair Morse, 2011. "Information Disclosure, Cognitive Biases, and Payday Borrowing," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(6), pages 1865-1893, December.
    21. Engel, Kathleen C. & McCoy, Patricia A., 2011. "The Subprime Virus: Reckless Credit, Regulatory Failure, and Next Steps," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195388824.
    22. Glenn Hoetker, 2007. "The use of logit and probit models in strategic management research: Critical issues," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 331-343, April.
    23. Sondra G. Beverly & Marianne A. Hilgert & Jeanne M. Hogarth, 2003. "Household financial management: the connection between knowledge and behavior," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Jul, pages 309-322.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Austin M. Miller & Samantha Snyder & Stacie A. Bosley & Sarah Greenman, 2023. "Income disclosure and consumer judgment in a multilevel marketing experiment," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 92-120, January.
    2. M. Lundholm, 2021. "Compensation and Socio-Economic Status of Borrowers in Foreclosure: Evidence from Swedish Micro-data," Journal of Consumer Policy, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 95-116, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gathergood, John & Weber, Jörg, 2017. "Financial literacy: A barrier to home ownership for the young?," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 62-78.
    2. J. Collins, 2011. "Mortgage Mistakes? Demographic Factors Associated with Problematic Loan Application Behaviors," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 586-599, December.
    3. Keys, Benjamin J. & Pope, Devin G. & Pope, Jaren C., 2016. "Failure to refinance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 482-499.
    4. Jonathan Zinman, 2014. "Consumer Credit: Too Much or Too Little (or Just Right)?," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(S2), pages 209-237.
    5. Agarwal, Sumit & Amromin, Gene & Ben-David, Itzhak & Chomsisengphet, Souphala & Evanoff, Douglas D., 2014. "Predatory lending and the subprime crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 29-52.
    6. Samuel Dodini & Donald R. Haurin & Stephanie Moulton & Maximilian D. Schmeiser, 2015. "How House Price Dynamics and Credit Constraints affect the Equity Extraction of Senior Homeowners," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2015-70, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    7. Jevgenijs Steinbuks & Gregory Elliehausen, 2014. "The Economic Effects of Legal Restrictions on High-Cost Mortgages," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 47-72, July.
    8. Lusardi, Annamaria & Mitchell, Olivia S., 2007. "Baby Boomer retirement security: The roles of planning, financial literacy, and housing wealth," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 205-224, January.
    9. Maarten C.J. van Rooij & Annamaria Lusardi & Rob J.M. Alessie, 2012. "Financial Literacy, Retirement Planning and Household Wealth," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 122(560), pages 449-478, May.
    10. Ho, Giang & Pennington-Cross, Anthony, 2006. "The impact of local predatory lending laws on the flow of subprime credit," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2), pages 210-228, September.
    11. Christopher Mayer & Karen Pence & Shane M. Sherlund, 2009. "The Rise in Mortgage Defaults," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 27-50, Winter.
    12. Keys, Benjamin J. & Wang, Jialan, 2019. "Minimum payments and debt paydown in consumer credit cards," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(3), pages 528-548.
    13. Olivier Armantier & Wändi Bruine de Bruin & Giorgio Topa & Wilbert van der Klaauw & Basit Zafar, 2015. "Inflation Expectations And Behavior: Do Survey Respondents Act On Their Beliefs?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 56(2), pages 505-536, May.
    14. Sumit Agarwal & Richard J. Rosen & Vincent W. Yao, 2013. "Why do borrowers make mortgage refinancing mistakes?," Working Paper Series WP-2013-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    15. Zinman, Jonathan, 2009. "Debit or credit?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 358-366, February.
    16. Bronson Argyle & Taylor D. Nadauld & Christopher Palmer, 2019. "Monthly Payment Targeting and the Demand for Maturity," NBER Working Papers 25668, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Benjamin Levinger & Marques Benton & Stephan Meier, 2011. "The Cost of Not Knowing the Score: Self-Estimated Credit Scores and Financial Outcomes," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 566-585, December.
    18. Benjamin J. Keys & Tomasz Piskorski & Amit Seru & Vincent Yao, 2014. "Mortgage Rates, Household Balance Sheets, and the Real Economy," NBER Working Papers 20561, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. John K. Ashton & Robert S. Hudson, 2009. "Should the joint provision of credit insurance with unsecured lending be prohibited? An examination of the UK payment protection insurance market," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2009-08, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
    20. Ebner, André, 2013. "A micro view on home equity withdrawal and its determinants: Evidence from Dutch households," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 321-337.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jconsa:v:48:y:2014:i:1:p:124-146. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-0078 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.