Ebook: The Impact of Public Policy on Consumer Credit

As both the twenty-first century and the new millennium opened and the old eras passed into history, individuals and organizations throughout the world advanced their listings of the most significant people and events in their respective specialties. Possibly more important, the tum of the clock and calendar also offered these same observers a good reason to glance into the crystal ball. Presumably, the past is of greatest interest to most people when it permits better understanding of the present, and maybe even limited insight into the outlook. In keeping with the reflective mood of the time, the staff and friends of the Credit Research Center (CRC) at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business noted that the beginning of the new millennium also marked the beginning of the second quarter-century of the Center's existence. The Center began at the Krannert Graduate School of Management at Purdue University in 1974 and moved to the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in 1997. The silver anniversary of its founding offered the occasion for creating more than another listing of significant past accomplishments and milestones. Rather, it offered the opportunity and, indeed, a mandate for CRC as an academic research center, to undertake a retrospective and future look into the status of research questions pertaining to consumer credit markets. For this reason, the Center organized a research conference which was held in Washington, D. C.

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The Impact of Public Policy on Consumer Credit presents a collection of research papers and discussions commissioned to commemorate the silver anniversary of Georgetown University's Credit Research Center in 1999. Nine topics serve as focal points for the volume, with the general theme `What do we know, what do we need to know?' about the functioning of consumer credit markets at the beginning of the 21<sup>st</sup> century. Because the growth of household debt and the consequences of household debt burden have dominated discussion in both the media and policy arenas for decades, `Credit Growth and the Burden of Debt' is the theme for the first group of three papers. The papers address the cultural evolution of consumer credit in the U.S., the rise in consumer indebtedness and the alarming surge in personal bankruptcies. A second grouping of three papers takes a distinctly policy-oriented tack and examines questions regarding consumer access to credit (mortgage markets and evidence of discrimination), consumer protection through mandatory disclosure of information (Truth-in-Lending regulations), and the general state of financial literacy among the population of young consumers entering credit markets for the first time. The final three papers in this volume examine how technological innovations in risk management (through statistical risk scoring models), marketing (through use of personal information for targeted marketing) and finance (through securitization of consumer loans) have impacted the availability of credit products and sparked new public policy questions.

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The Impact of Public Policy on Consumer Credit presents a collection of research papers and discussions commissioned to commemorate the silver anniversary of Georgetown University's Credit Research Center in 1999. Nine topics serve as focal points for the volume, with the general theme `What do we know, what do we need to know?' about the functioning of consumer credit markets at the beginning of the 21<sup>st</sup> century. Because the growth of household debt and the consequences of household debt burden have dominated discussion in both the media and policy arenas for decades, `Credit Growth and the Burden of Debt' is the theme for the first group of three papers. The papers address the cultural evolution of consumer credit in the U.S., the rise in consumer indebtedness and the alarming surge in personal bankruptcies. A second grouping of three papers takes a distinctly policy-oriented tack and examines questions regarding consumer access to credit (mortgage markets and evidence of discrimination), consumer protection through mandatory disclosure of information (Truth-in-Lending regulations), and the general state of financial literacy among the population of young consumers entering credit markets for the first time. The final three papers in this volume examine how technological innovations in risk management (through statistical risk scoring models), marketing (through use of personal information for targeted marketing) and finance (through securitization of consumer loans) have impacted the availability of credit products and sparked new public policy questions.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-ix
Introduction....Pages 1-22
The Evolution of Consumer Credit in the United States....Pages 23-42
The Growth of Consumer Credit and the Household Debt Service Burden....Pages 43-68
Personal Bankruptcies....Pages 69-108
Disclosure as a Consumer Protection....Pages 109-148
Financial Literacy in the U.S. and Efforts Toward Credit Education....Pages 149-169
Trends in Equal Access to Credit Products....Pages 171-208
The Impact of Credit Scoring and Automated Underwriting on Credit Availability....Pages 209-227
Privacy, Consumer Credit, and the Regulation of Personal Information....Pages 229-285
Consumer Loan Securitization....Pages 287-313
Back Matter....Pages 315-336

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The Impact of Public Policy on Consumer Credit presents a collection of research papers and discussions commissioned to commemorate the silver anniversary of Georgetown University's Credit Research Center in 1999. Nine topics serve as focal points for the volume, with the general theme `What do we know, what do we need to know?' about the functioning of consumer credit markets at the beginning of the 21<sup>st</sup> century. Because the growth of household debt and the consequences of household debt burden have dominated discussion in both the media and policy arenas for decades, `Credit Growth and the Burden of Debt' is the theme for the first group of three papers. The papers address the cultural evolution of consumer credit in the U.S., the rise in consumer indebtedness and the alarming surge in personal bankruptcies. A second grouping of three papers takes a distinctly policy-oriented tack and examines questions regarding consumer access to credit (mortgage markets and evidence of discrimination), consumer protection through mandatory disclosure of information (Truth-in-Lending regulations), and the general state of financial literacy among the population of young consumers entering credit markets for the first time. The final three papers in this volume examine how technological innovations in risk management (through statistical risk scoring models), marketing (through use of personal information for targeted marketing) and finance (through securitization of consumer loans) have impacted the availability of credit products and sparked new public policy questions.
Content:
Front Matter....Pages i-ix
Introduction....Pages 1-22
The Evolution of Consumer Credit in the United States....Pages 23-42
The Growth of Consumer Credit and the Household Debt Service Burden....Pages 43-68
Personal Bankruptcies....Pages 69-108
Disclosure as a Consumer Protection....Pages 109-148
Financial Literacy in the U.S. and Efforts Toward Credit Education....Pages 149-169
Trends in Equal Access to Credit Products....Pages 171-208
The Impact of Credit Scoring and Automated Underwriting on Credit Availability....Pages 209-227
Privacy, Consumer Credit, and the Regulation of Personal Information....Pages 229-285
Consumer Loan Securitization....Pages 287-313
Back Matter....Pages 315-336
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