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Giving credit where credit is due? the Community Reinvestment Act and mortgage lending in lower-income neighborhoods

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Author Info
Neil Bhutta
Abstract

I identify and quantify the mortgage supply effect of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), a law mandating that banks help provide credit in lower-income neighborhoods, by exploiting a discontinuity in the selection rule determining which census tracts CRA targets. Using a comprehensive source of micro data on MSA mortgage applications, I find that CRA affects bank lending primarily in large MSA's, where banks are most scrutinized. The analysis indicates that CRA's effect on bank originations was about 4% between 1994 and 1996, and expanded to 8% in 1997-2002, consistent with the timing of a reform strengthening CRA. I provide some evidence that marginal loans go to atypical, potentially higher-risk borrowers. The results also indicate net "crowd-in": lending to targeted tracts by unregulated institutions rises in post-reform years, in particular to those areas that have had relatively low home purchase volume in the recent past, consistent with a model of information externalities in credit markets. Finally, using changes in tract eligibility status following the release of Census 2000 data as an additional source of variation, I find that CRA increased bank lending to newly targeted tracts in large MSA's by 4-5% in 2004 and 2005.

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Paper provided by Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.) in its series Finance and Economics Discussion Series with number 2008-61.

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Date of creation: 2008
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2008-61

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Related research
Keywords: Mortgage loans ; Community Reinvestment Act of 1977;

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Schill, Michael H & Wachter, Susan M, 1994. "Borrower and Neighborhood Racial and Income Characteristics and Financial Institution Mortgage Application Screening," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 9(3), pages 223-39, November.
    Other versions:
  2. Christopher R. Berry & Sarah L. Lee, 2007. "The Community Reinvestment Act: A Regression Discontinuity Analysis," Working Papers 0704, Harris School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago. [Downloadable!]
  3. Lang William W. & Nakamura Leonard I., 1993. "A Model of Redlining," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 223-234, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  5. Robert B. Avery & Kenneth P. Brevoort & Glenn B. Canner, 2007. "Opportunities and Issues in Using HMDA Data," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 29(4), pages 351-380. [Downloadable!]
  6. repec:bep:eapadv:v:5:y:2005:i:1:p:1392-1392 is not listed on IDEAS
  7. Caplin, Andrew & Leahy, John, 1998. "Miracle on Sixth Avenue: Information Externalities and Search," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 108(446), pages 60-74, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  8. Mark J. Garmaise & Tobias J. Moskowitz, 2006. "Bank Mergers and Crime: The Real and Social Effects of Credit Market Competition," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 495-538, 04. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Ling, David C. & Wachter, Susan M., 1998. "Information Externalities and Home Mortgage Underwriting," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 317-332, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Guido Imbens & Thomas Lemieux, 2007. "Regression Discontinuity Designs: A Guide to Practice," NBER Working Papers 13039, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  12. Kenneth A. Carow & Edward J. Kane, 2001. "Event-Study Evidence of the Value of Relaxing Longstanding Regulatory Restraints on Banks, 1970-2000," NBER Working Papers 8594, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Robert B. Avery & Raphael W. Bostic & Glenn B. Canner, 2000. "CRA special lending programs," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Nov, pages 711-731. [Downloadable!]
  14. LaCour-Little, Michael & Malpezzi, Stephen, 2003. "Appraisal Quality and Residential Mortgage Default: Evidence from Alaska," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 211-33, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Joseph Nichols & Anthony Pennington-Cross & Anthony Yezer, 2004. "Borrower Self-Selection, Underwriting Costs, and Subprime Mortgage Credit Supply," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 197-219, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Millon Cornett, Marcia & De, Sankar, 1991. "Medium of Payment in Corporate Acquisitions: Evidence from Interstate Bank Mergers," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 23(4), pages 767-76, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Harrison, David M., 2001. "The Importance of Lender Heterogeneity in Mortgage Lending," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 285-309, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Paul S. Calem & Susan M. Wachter, 1999. "Community Reinvestment and Credit Risk: Evidence from an Affordable-Home-Loan Program," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 27(1), pages 105-134. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Neil Bhutta, 2009. "Regression discontinuity estimates of the effects of the GSE act of 1992," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2009-03, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.). [Downloadable!]
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