Consumer Finance
Our Consumer Finance Institute researches how people earn, spend, save, and invest, as well as how credit markets and payment systems affect the economy. Our goal is to foster a healthy consumer sector, a stable financial system, and a resilient regional and national economy.
Working Paper
Inequality in the Time of COVID-19: Evidence from Mortgage Delinquency and Forbearance
WP 21-09 – Using a novel database that combines mortgage servicing records, credit-bureau data, and loan application information, we show that lower-income and minority borrowers have significantly higher nonpayment rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, even after controlling for conventional risk factors.
Consumer Finance
What is the Consumer Finance Institute?
We study credit and payment markets to understand how they affect consumers and the economy.
Working Paper
Does CFPB Oversight Crimp Credit?
WP 21-08 - We study how regulatory oversight by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) affects mortgage credit supply and other aspects of bank behavior.
Report
CFI COVID-19 Survey of Consumers – Wave 7
This report shares results from Wave 7 of a national survey of consumers investigating the effects of COVID-19 on renters and mortgage holders, with updates to previous data on job and income loss and financial security.
Working Paper
Eviction Risk of Rental Housing: Does It Matter How Your Landlord Finances the Property?
WP 21-05 – We show, using a stylized model, how the financing choice of landlords can impact eviction decisions in rental markets.
Working Paper
Using High-Frequency Evaluations to Estimate Discrimination: Evidence from Mortgage Loan Officers
WP 21-04 – We develop empirical tests for discrimination that use high-frequency evaluations to address the problem of unobserved heterogeneity in a conventional benchmarking test.
COVID-19
COVID-19 and the Philadelphia Fed
Get the Philadelphia Fed’s latest information, resources, and research on the coronavirus pandemic's impact on businesses, households, and communities.
Consumer Finance
Consumer Finance Institute Visiting Scholars
We regularly invite outside experts in consumer finance and payments to conduct independent research, collaborate with our staff economists and analysts, and participate in our events.
Report
CFI COVID-19 Survey of Consumers – Wave 6
This report shares results from Wave 6 of a national survey of consumers investigating COVID-19 impacts on job status, income, and personal financial security.