IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v197y2020ics0165176520303736.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Consumer credit under asymmetric information: The wrong types apply

Author

Listed:
  • Distefano, Rosaria
  • Di Fede, Gianfranco
  • Reito, Francesco

Abstract

We present a simple asymmetric information model of the consumer credit with perfectly competitive banks and many borrowers who wish to advance the purchase of an indivisible good. We show a credit rationing equilibrium is possible. Unlike business lending models, it is not just the volume of lending that is wrong but also who gets loans. A policy that targets the interest rate can increase social efficiency, but not achieve the first best.

Suggested Citation

  • Distefano, Rosaria & Di Fede, Gianfranco & Reito, Francesco, 2020. "Consumer credit under asymmetric information: The wrong types apply," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:197:y:2020:i:c:s0165176520303736
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109613
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176520303736
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2020.109613?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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. Roman Inderst, 2008. "'Irresponsible Lending' With A Better Informed Lender," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(532), pages 1499-1519, October.
    2. David de Meza & David C. Webb, 1987. "Too Much Investment: A Problem of Asymmetric Information," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 102(2), pages 281-292.
    3. 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.
    4. Stiglitz, Joseph E & Weiss, Andrew, 1981. "Credit Rationing in Markets with Imperfect Information," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 71(3), pages 393-410, June.
    5. Dwight M. Jaffee & Thomas Russell, 1976. "Imperfect Information, Uncertainty, and Credit Rationing," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 90(4), pages 651-666.
    6. de Meza, David & Webb, David, 2000. "Does credit rationing imply insufficient lending?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 215-234, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. de Meza, David & Reito, Francesco, 2019. "Too Little Lending: A Problem of Symmetric Information," MPRA Paper 93700, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Dean Karlan & Jonathan Zinman, 2009. "Observing Unobservables: Identifying Information Asymmetries With a Consumer Credit Field Experiment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(6), pages 1993-2008, November.
    3. Parker, Simon C, 2002. "Do Banks Ration Credit to New Enterprises? And Should Governments Intervene? President's Lecture Delivered at the Annual General Meeting of the Scottish Economic Society 4-5 September 2001," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 49(2), pages 162-195, May.
    4. Christian Pietro & Marco Maria Sorge, 2018. "Outside (option) in the orchard: lemons or peaches?," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 45(4), pages 555-564, December.
    5. Li, Yuanyuan & Wigniolle, Bertrand, 2017. "Endogenous information revelation in a competitive credit market and credit crunch," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 127-141.
    6. Neyer, Ulrike, 2004. "Asymmetric information in credit markets--implications for the transition in Eastern Germany," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 61-78, March.
    7. Andy Cosh & Douglas Cumming & Alan Hughes, 2009. "Outside Enterpreneurial Capital," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(540), pages 1494-1533, October.
    8. Mark Gertler, 1988. "Financial structure and aggregate economic activity: an overview," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, pages 559-596.
    9. Takalo, Tuomas & Toivanen, Otto, 2003. "Equilibrium in financial markets with adverse selection," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 6/2003, Bank of Finland.
    10. Daripa, Arup, 2008. "Optimal collective contract without peer information or peer monitoring," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(1), pages 147-163, April.
    11. Ibrahimo, M.V. & Barros, C.P., 2009. "Relevance or irrelevance of capital structure?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 473-479, March.
    12. Martin Petrick, 2005. "Empirical measurement of credit rationing in agriculture: a methodological survey," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 33(2), pages 191-203, September.
    13. Abbassi, Puriya & Bräuning, Falk & Fecht, Falko & Peydró, José-Luis, 2014. "Cross-border liquidity, relationships and monetary policy: Evidence from the Euro area interbank crisis," Discussion Papers 45/2014, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    14. Claudio A. Piga & Gianfranco Atzeni, 2007. "R&D Investment, Credit Rationing And Sample Selection," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 149-178, April.
    15. Miller, Sarah, 2015. "Information and default in consumer credit markets: Evidence from a natural experiment," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 45-70.
    16. Anastasios Dosis, 2019. "Interest Rates and Investment Under Competitive Screening and Moral Hazard," Working Papers hal-02130434, HAL.
    17. Inci, Eren, 2013. "Occupational choice and the quality of entrepreneurs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 1-21.
    18. Markus K. Brunnermeier & Thomas M. Eisenbach & Yuliy Sannikov, 2012. "Macroeconomics with Financial Frictions: A Survey," Levine's Working Paper Archive 786969000000000384, David K. Levine.
    19. Giuseppe Coco & Giuseppe Pignataro, 2010. "Inequality of Opportunity in the Credit Market," SERIES 0026, Dipartimento di Economia e Finanza - Università degli Studi di Bari "Aldo Moro", revised Jan 2010.
    20. Milbradt, Konstantin & Oehmke, Martin, 2015. "Maturity rationing and collective short-termism," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 84513, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Consumer credit; Overlending; Credit rationing;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General

    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:eee:ecolet:v:197:y:2020:i:c:s0165176520303736. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolet .

    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.