Do US Banks Discriminate in Lending?

Using data on more than 90% of the loan applications in the US between the years 2004 and 2012 we study the lending practices of US banks, and in particular examine whether they discriminate against race, gender, and ethnicity. In total, we consider about 200 million applications. We are also interested to see how such discrimination varies across space and time. In terms of analysis across time, we examine the variation in discrimination in response to business cycles by considering lending behavior in the periods before, during, and after the pre-2008 crisis. In terms of analysis across space, we also consider differences in lending across US states. To control for other characteristics that affect lending, we augment the analysis with data on demographics that we obtain from the US Censuses of 2000 and 2010, and the American Community Surveys of 2005 to 2012.

UREP cycle: 17

Faculty Mentor(s): Dr. Alexis Antoniades

Student(s): Fatma Marafi

Deliverables:

Publications – https://www.usqbc.org/news/gu-q-wins-urep-grant-to-research-discriminato…

Funding: $6,000

The Undergraduate Research Experience Program (UREP)