IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mnb/wpaper/2025-3.html

Birds of a Feather Indebted Together - Solutions to the Information Problem in the Case of Mortgage Loans

Author

Listed:
  • Ákos Aczél

    (Magyar Nemzeti Bank (the Central Bank of Hungary))

  • Lajos Tamás Szabó

    (Magyar Nemzeti Bank (the Central Bank of Hungary))

Abstract

We examine peer effects in mortgage borrowing decisions. We find that having financially literate colleagues improves the borrowing decisions of financially less literate co-workers. Interest rates on the mortgage loans of these co-workers are significantly lower than for similar employees, whose peers have lower financial literacy. The magnitude of the effect is economically significant, amounting to roughly 4 to 5 monthly instalments until maturity. The results are heterogeneous: advice is more valuable for borrowers with low mathematical skills, and the peer effect is considerably higher in districts, where competition is weaker among banks. We also find that introducing a standardised loan product can offset the impact of the peer effect by making the decision problem of borrowers less complex.

Suggested Citation

  • Ákos Aczél & Lajos Tamás Szabó, 2025. "Birds of a Feather Indebted Together - Solutions to the Information Problem in the Case of Mortgage Loans," MNB Working Papers 2025/3, Magyar Nemzeti Bank (Central Bank of Hungary).
    • Handle: RePEc:mnb:wpaper:2025/3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mnb.hu/letoltes/mnb-wp-2025-3-final-1.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hans-Martin Von Gaudecker, 2015. "How Does Household Portfolio Diversification Vary with Financial Literacy and Financial Advice?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(2), pages 489-507, April.
    2. Charles F. Manski, 1993. "Identification of Endogenous Social Effects: The Reflection Problem," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(3), pages 531-542.
    3. Paige Ouimet & Geoffrey Tate, 2020. "Learning from Coworkers: Peer Effects on Individual Investment Decisions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(1), pages 133-172, February.
    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. Duraj, Kamila & Grunow, Daniela & Chaliasos, Michael & Laudenbach, Christine & Siegel, Stephan, 2024. "Rethinking the stock market participation puzzle: A qualitative approach," IMFS Working Paper Series 210, Goethe University Frankfurt, Institute for Monetary and Financial Stability (IMFS).
    2. Lyu, Wenyi & Yu, Leng & Zhang, Jiajun, 2024. "Peer effects in digital inclusive finance participation decisions: Evidence from rural China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    3. Francisco Gomes & Michael Haliassos & Tarun Ramadorai, 2021. "Household Finance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 59(3), pages 919-1000, September.
    4. Samuli Knüpfer & Elias Rantapuska & Matti Sarvimäki, 2023. "Social Interaction in the Family: Evidence from Investors’ Security Holdings," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 27(4), pages 1297-1327.
    5. Ajirloo, Bahman Fathi & Switzer, Lorne N., 2022. "Self-disclosed peer effects on corporate capital structure," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    6. Cramer, Kim Fe & Koont, Naz, 2021. "Peer effects in deposit markets," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119192, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    7. David Aristei & Manuela Gallo, 2021. "Financial Knowledge, Confidence, and Sustainable Financial Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-21, September.
    8. Duraj, Kamila & Grunow, Daniela & Chaliasos, Michael & Laudenbach, Christine & Siegel, Stephan, 2024. "Rethinking the stock market participation puzzle: A qualitative approach," SAFE Working Paper Series 441, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    9. Bao, Yangming & Götz, Martin, 2025. "Local peer effects and corporate investment," Discussion Papers 34/2025, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    10. D’Acunto, Francesco & Rossi, Alberto G. & Weber, Michael, 2024. "Crowdsourcing peer information to change spending behavior," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    11. Chatzistamoulou, Nikos & Kounetas, Kostas & Tsekouras, Kostas, 2024. "Knowledge flows in Data Envelopment Analysis. The role of peer effects," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    12. Ali-Rind, Asad & Boubaker, Sabri & Jarjir, Souad Lajili, 2023. "Peer effects in financial economics: A literature survey," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    13. Arrondel, Luc & Calvo-Pardo, Hector & Giannitsarou, Chryssi & Haliassos, Michael, 2022. "Informative social interactions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 246-263.
    14. Pelster, Matthias, 2024. "Leverage constraints and investors' choice of underlyings," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    15. Song, Suyong & Wang, Jiawei (Brooke), 2024. "Boardroom networks and corporate investment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    16. Bhagya N. Gunawardena & Lana Friesen & Kenan Kalayci, 2025. "No Pain, No Gain - An Experiment on Skill Accumulation," Discussion Papers Series 670, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
    17. Das, Tanmoy & Banerjee, Priyodorshi, 2023. "Peer effects on decision making in complex financial situations," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    18. Fabrice Gilles & Sabina Issehnane & Florent Sari, 2022. "Using short-term jobs as a way to find a regular job. What kind of role for local context?," TEPP Working Paper 2022-07, TEPP.
    19. H Peyton Young, 2014. "The Evolution of Social Norms," Economics Series Working Papers 726, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    20. Ruomeng Cui & Dennis J. Zhang & Achal Bassamboo, 2019. "Learning from Inventory Availability Information: Evidence from Field Experiments on Amazon," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(3), pages 1216-1235, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G41 - Financial Economics - - Behavioral Finance - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making in Financial Markets

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:mnb:wpaper:2025/3. 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: Lorant Kaszab The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Lorant Kaszab to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mnbgvhu.html .

    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.