Working Paper
Building Credit Histories
WP 26-17 – If a credit history is necessary to get credit, and credit is needed to build a credit history, where does this leave new borrowers? This paper explores how lenders may look beyond repayment history to give new borrowers access to credit.
Featured Work
Working Paper
Does Experience Matter? Past Fraud Exposure, Data Compromises, and Credit Market Behavior
WP 26-10 – We study how past experiences with fraud affect individuals’ likelihood of taking precautionary action in credit markets when faced with a new shock that raises their fraud risks.
Working Paper
Model Risk Under CECL: A Consumer Finance Perspective
WP 26-09 – The author examines the challenges of economic forecasting and model misspecification errors confronted by financial institutions implementing the novel current expected credit loss (CECL) allowance methodology and its impact on model risk and bias in CECL projections.
Working Paper
Credit Scores and Inequality Across the Life Cycle
WP 26-07 – Among a cohort born in the same year, inequality in consumption, income, and credit scores (reputational inequality) rises with age. Models of reputation formation are presented to explain these patterns. Information bans are studied.
Featured Data
CFI COVID-19 Survey of Consumers
To gain insights into the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on financial security in the U.S., the Consumer Finance Institute at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia conducted a series of national surveys of consumers beginning in April 2020 and concluding in April 2022.
Updated: 30 May ’23
Philadelphia’s History of Racially Restricted Housing
As part of the Philadelphia Fed’s efforts to understand how housing affects the economy in our District, our researchers are studying the links between past housing discrimination and present-day outcomes.
Updated: 20 Feb ’24