IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/feb/framed/00622.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Perceived Moral Reprehensibility of Strategic Mortgage Default

Author

Listed:
  • Michael J. Seiler

Abstract

Defaulting on a mortgage is widely viewed as being immoral, but no prior study has examined the intervening roles of financial outcome and default intent. We find that the public is significantly more accepting of a defaulting borrower who earns a zero or negative return on his investment than one who earns a positive return. This moral viewpoint changes significantly when the default is strategic in nature. Defaulters are judged significantly less harshly by those who more so blame the lender for the current financial crisis, those who have previously strategically defaulted, and males. When asked to suggest a "morally appropriate" settlement offer to lenders to resolve the distressed debt, beyond the financial outcome and default intent remaining significant, we further find that those who more so blame the lender, those view their home as more of an investment rather than a consumption good, those who have previously strategically defaulted, those with lower income levels, and minorities suggest significantly lower settlement offers.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael J. Seiler, 2016. "The Perceived Moral Reprehensibility of Strategic Mortgage Default," Framed Field Experiments 00622, The Field Experiments Website.
    • Handle: RePEc:feb:framed:00622
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://s3.amazonaws.com/fieldexperiments-papers2/papers/00622.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Seiler, Michael J., 2015. "The role of informational uncertainty in the decision to strategically default," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 49-59.
    2. Michael Seiler, 2014. "The Effect of Perceived Lender Characteristics and Market Conditions on Strategic Mortgage Defaults," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 256-270, February.
    3. Michael J. Seiler, 2015. "Do as I Say, Not as I Do: The Role of Advice versus Actions in the Decision to Strategically Default," Journal of Real Estate Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 191-216, April.
    4. Marshall Gangel & Michael Seiler & Andrew Collins, 2013. "Exploring the Foreclosure Contagion Effect Using Agent-Based Modeling," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 46(2), pages 339-354, February.
    5. Blount, Sally, 1995. "When Social Outcomes Aren't Fair: The Effect of Causal Attributions on Preferences," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 131-144, August.
    6. William H. Rogers & William Winter, 2009. "The Impact of Foreclosures on Neighboring Housing Sales," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 31(4), pages 455-480.
    7. Michael J. Seiler & Andrew J. Collins & Nina H. Fefferman, 2013. "Strategic Mortgage Default in the Context of a Social Network," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 35(4), pages 445-476.
    8. Luigi Guiso & Paola Sapienza & Luigi Zingales, 2013. "The Determinants of Attitudes toward Strategic Default on Mortgages," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 68(4), pages 1473-1515, August.
    9. Harding, John P. & Rosenblatt, Eric & Yao, Vincent W., 2009. "The contagion effect of foreclosed properties," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 164-178, November.
    10. Joseph Engelberg & Christopher A. Parsons, 2016. "Worrying about the Stock Market: Evidence from Hospital Admissions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(3), pages 1227-1250, June.
    11. Zhenguo Lin & Eric Rosenblatt & Vincent Yao, 2009. "Spillover Effects of Foreclosures on Neighborhood Property Values," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 38(4), pages 387-407, May.
    12. Lucy F. Ackert & Bryan K. Church & Narayanan Jayaraman, 2011. "Is There a Link Between Money Illusion and Homeowners’ Expectations of Housing Prices?," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 39(2), pages 251-275, June.
    13. Michael J. Seiler & Vicky L. Seiler & Mark A. Lane & David M. Harrison, 2012. "Fear, Shame and Guilt: Economic and Behavioral Motivations for Strategic Default," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 40, pages 199-233, December.
    14. Seiler, Michael J., 2014. "Understanding the prevalence and implications of homeowner money illusion," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(C), pages 74-84.
    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. David M. Harrison & Kimberly F. Luchtenberg & Michael J. Seiler, 2023. "Improving Mortgage Default Collection Efforts by Employing the Decoy Effect," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 66(4), pages 840-860, May.
    2. Jackson T. Anderson & David M. Harrison & Kimberly F. Luchtenberg & Michael J. Seiler, 2023. "Legal Versus Psychological Contracts: When Does a Mortgage Default Settlement Contract Become a Contract?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 191-217, August.
    3. Hirota, Shinichi & Suzuki-Löffelholz, Kumi & Udagawa, Daisuke, 2020. "Does owners’ purchase price affect rent offered? Experimental evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    4. Kimberly F. Luchtenberg & Michael J. Seiler & Hua Sun, 2019. "Listing Agent Signals: Does a Picture Paint a Thousand Words?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 617-648, November.
    5. Jackson T. Anderson & David M. Harrison & Michael J. Seiler, 2022. "Reducing Strategic Forbearance under the CARES Act: an Experimental Approach Utilizing Recourse Attestation," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(2), pages 230-260, August.

    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. Michael J. Seiler, 2017. "Do Liquidated Damages Clauses Affect Strategic Mortgage Default Morality? A Test of the Disjunctive Thesis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 45(1), pages 204-230, February.
    2. Seiler, Michael J., 2015. "The role of informational uncertainty in the decision to strategically default," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 49-59.
    3. Marcus T. Allen & Justin D. Benefield & Christopher L. Cain & Norman Maynard, 2024. "Distressed Property Sales: Differences and Similarities Across Types of Distress," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 68(2), pages 318-353, February.
    4. Jackson T. Anderson & David M. Harrison & Kimberly F. Luchtenberg & Michael J. Seiler, 2023. "Legal Versus Psychological Contracts: When Does a Mortgage Default Settlement Contract Become a Contract?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 191-217, August.
    5. Ying Huang & Ronald W. Spahr & Mark A. Sunderman, 2020. "The Impact of Default and Foreclosure on Housing Values: Rings Vs. Neighborhoods Approach," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 338-374, April.
    6. Jeffrey P. Cohen & Cletus C. Coughlin & Vincent W. Yao, 2016. "Sales of Distressed Residential Property: What Have We Learned from Recent Research?," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 98(3), pages 159-188.
    7. Michael Seiler, 2014. "The Effect of Perceived Lender Characteristics and Market Conditions on Strategic Mortgage Defaults," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 256-270, February.
    8. David M. Harrison & Kimberly F. Luchtenberg & Michael J. Seiler, 2023. "Improving Mortgage Default Collection Efforts by Employing the Decoy Effect," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 66(4), pages 840-860, May.
    9. Weiran Huang & Ashlyn Nelson & Stephen L. Ross, 2018. "Foreclosure Spillovers within Broad Neighborhoods," Working Papers 2018-096, Human Capital and Economic Opportunity Working Group.
    10. Calabrese, Raffaella & Crook, Jonathan, 2020. "Spatial contagion in mortgage defaults: A spatial dynamic survival model with time and space varying coefficients," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 287(2), pages 749-761.
    11. Lingxiao Li & Erdem Ucar & Abdullah Yavas, 2022. "Social Capital and Mortgage Delinquency," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 64(3), pages 379-403, April.
    12. Hirota, Shinichi & Suzuki-Löffelholz, Kumi & Udagawa, Daisuke, 2020. "Does owners’ purchase price affect rent offered? Experimental evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 25(C).
    13. Jackson T. Anderson & David M. Harrison & Michael J. Seiler, 2022. "Reducing Strategic Forbearance under the CARES Act: an Experimental Approach Utilizing Recourse Attestation," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 65(2), pages 230-260, August.
    14. Sadayuki, Taisuke, 2018. "Measuring the spatial effect of multiple sites: An application to housing rent and public transportation in Tokyo, Japan," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 155-173.
    15. Chan, Sewin & Gedal, Michael & Been, Vicki & Haughwout, Andrew, 2013. "The role of neighborhood characteristics in mortgage default risk: Evidence from New York City," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 100-118.
    16. John P. Harding & Jing Li & Stuart S. Rosenthal & Xirui Zhang, 2022. "Forced moves and home maintenance: The amplifying effects of mortgage payment burden on underwater homeowners," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 50(2), pages 498-533, June.
    17. Chomsisengphet, Souphala & Kiefer, Hua & Liu, Xiaodong, 2018. "Spillover effects in home mortgage defaults: Identifying the power neighbor," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 68-82.
    18. W. Scott Frame, 2010. "Estimating the effect of mortgage foreclosures on nearby property values: a critical review of the literature," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, vol. 95(3).
    19. Simlai, Prodosh, 2019. "Subprime credit, idiosyncratic risk, and foreclosures," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 175-189.
    20. Gerardi, Kristopher & Rosenblatt, Eric & Willen, Paul S. & Yao, Vincent, 2015. "Foreclosure externalities: New evidence," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 42-56.

    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:feb:framed:00622. 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: Francesca Pagnotta (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.fieldexperiments.com .

    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.