IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/jre/issued/v11n11996p13-24.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Statistical Evidence of Mortgage Redlining? A Cautionary Tale

Author

Abstract

Statistical analyses of mortgage redlining at the neighborhood level have fueled the debate over the existence of racial redlining in mortgage lending, both "proving" and "disproving" that redlining exists, depending upon the type of model used. In this paper, we compare results of different statistical models using data for the Washington, DC metropolitan area to determine their usefulness in providing statistical evidence on this issue. After demonstrating the sensitivity of single-equation models to specification error, we estimate a simultaneous equations model of mortgage credit flows. This model makes it possible to analyze differences in the supply and demand for mortgage credit by the racial composition of the community. We conclude that most, if not all, statistical evidence of racial redlining based on aggregate loan data is at best inconclusive, and more likely, misleading.

Suggested Citation

  • Fred J. Phillips-Patrick & Clifford V. Rossi, 1996. "Statistical Evidence of Mortgage Redlining? A Cautionary Tale," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 11(1), pages 13-24.
  • Handle: RePEc:jre:issued:v:11:n:1:1996:p:13-24
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://pages.jh.edu/jrer/papers/pdf/past/vol11n01/v11p013.pdf
    File Function: Full text
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Becker, Gary S., 1971. "The Economics of Discrimination," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 2, number 9780226041162, September.
    2. Michael H. Schill & Susan M. Wachter, "undated". "A Tale of Two Cities: Racial and Ethnic Geographic Disparities in Home Mortgage Lending in Boston and Philadelphia," Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research Working Papers 16-93, Wharton School Rodney L. White Center for Financial Research.
    3. Holmes, Andrew & Horvitz, Paul, 1994. "Mortgage Redlining: Race, Risk, and Demand," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 49(1), pages 81-99, March.
    4. Robert F. Phillips & Robert P. Trost & Anthony M.J. Yezer, 1994. "Bias in estimates of discrimination and default in mortgage lending: the effects of simultaneity and self-selection," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, pages 197-222.
    5. Munnell, Alicia H. & Geoffrey M. B. Tootell & Lynn E. Browne & James McEneaney, 1996. "Mortgage Lending in Boston: Interpreting HMDA Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 25-53, March.
    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. Alper Kara & Philip Molyneux, 2017. "Household Access to Mortgages in the UK," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 52(3), pages 253-275, December.
    2. Ethan Cohen-Cole, 2008. "Credit card redlining," Supervisory Research and Analysis Working Papers QAU08-1, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.
    3. Donald R. Epley & Kartono Liano, 1999. "The Residential Mortgage Supply Function of Commercial Banks," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 36(11), pages 1959-1971, October.
    4. Solomon Y. Deku & Alper Kara & Philip Molyneux, 2016. "Access to consumer credit in the UK," The European Journal of Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(10), pages 941-964, August.
    5. Harrison, David M., 2001. "The Importance of Lender Heterogeneity in Mortgage Lending," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 285-309, March.
    6. C. Sirmans & Barrett Slade, 2012. "National Transaction-based Land Price Indices," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 45(4), pages 829-845, November.
    7. Henry J. Munneke & C.F. Sirmans & Barrett A. Slade & Geoffrey K. Turnbull, 2014. "Housing Regulation, Externalities and Residential Property Prices," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 42(2), pages 422-456, June.

    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. Stephen L. Ross, 2005. "The Continuing Practice and Impact of Discrimination," Working papers 2005-19, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, revised Jul 2006.
    2. Douglas D. Evanoff & Lewis M. Segal, 1996. "CRA and fair lending regulations: resulting trends in mortgage lending," Economic Perspectives, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, vol. 20(Nov), pages 19-46.
    3. George H. Lentz & Ko Wang, 1998. "Residential Appraisal and the Lending Process: A Survey of Issues," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 15(1), pages 11-40.
    4. HAROLD Black & M. Collins & Ken Cyree, 1997. "Do Black-Owned Banks Discriminate against Black Borrowers?," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 11(1), pages 189-204, February.
    5. Dawkins, Mark C., 2002. "Simultaneity bias in mortgage lending: A test of simultaneous equations models on bank-specific data," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(8), pages 1593-1613, August.
    6. Russell Kashian & Robert Drago, 2020. "Race in relation to bank depositors and mortgage applications," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 49(3), September.
    7. Ross, Stephen L. & Tootell, Geoffrey M. B., 2004. "Redlining, the Community Reinvestment Act, and private mortgage insurance," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 278-297, March.
    8. Nothaft, Frank E. & Perry, Vanessa G., 2002. "Do mortgage rates vary by neighborhood? Implications for loan pricing and redlining," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 244-265, September.
    9. Song Han, 2001. "On the Economics of Discrimination in Credit Markets," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2002-02, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    10. Block, Walter & Snow, Nicholas & Stringham, Edward, 2008. "Banks, insurance companies, and discrimination," MPRA Paper 26035, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Douglas Evanoff & Lewis Segal, 1997. "Strategic Responses to Bank Regulation: Evidence From HMDA Data," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 11(1), pages 69-93, February.
    12. Wheeler, Christopher H. & Olson, Luke M., 2015. "Racial differences in mortgage denials over the housing cycle: Evidence from U.S. metropolitan areas," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 33-49.
    13. Marsha Courchane & David Nickerson, 1997. "Discrimination Resulting from Overage Practices," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 11(1), pages 133-151, February.
    14. Eric Rosenblatt, 1997. "A Reconsideration Of Discrimination In Mortgage Underwriting With Data From A National Mortgage Bank," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 11(1), pages 109-131, February.
    15. David Horne, 1997. "Mortgage Lending, Race, and Model Specification," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 11(1), pages 43-68, February.
    16. Stanley D. Longhofer, 1996. "Cultural affinity and mortgage discrimination," Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, issue Q III, pages 12-24.
    17. Manthos D. Delis & Panagiotis Papadopoulos, 2019. "Mortgage Lending Discrimination Across the U.S.: New Methodology and New Evidence," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 341-368, December.
    18. Yan Zhang, 2013. "Fair Lending Analysis of Mortgage Pricing: Does Underwriting Matter?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 46(1), pages 131-151, January.
    19. Patrick Bayer & Fernando Ferreira & Stephen L. Ross, 2018. "What Drives Racial and Ethnic Differences in High-Cost Mortgages? The Role of High-Risk Lenders," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 31(1), pages 175-205.
    20. Song Han, 2011. "Creditor Learning and Discrimination in Lending," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 40(1), pages 1-27, October.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • L85 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Real Estate Services

    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:jre:issued:v:11:n:1:1996:p:13-24. 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: JRER Graduate Assistant/Webmaster (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.aresnet.org/ .

    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.