Consumer Loans, Heterogeneous Interest Rates, and Inequality
Marco Bonomo,
Tiago Cavalcanti,
Fernando Chertman,
Amanda Fantinatti,
Andrew Hannon and
Cezar Santos
No 614, Working Papers Series from Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department
Abstract:
Consumer loans are key for consumption smoothing. But what if individuals who need them the most find it harder to access these loans? We examine this question empirically and quantitatively, using Brazilian credit registry and matched employer-employee data. Low-income individuals face higher interest rates, even after controlling for several risk factors and characteristics. Our model includes life-cycle dynamics, different credit types, occupations, and income shocks with endogenous default. According to the calibrated model, reforms reducing loan interest rate spreads could significantly benefit individuals, especially young and poor informal workers. The pro-competition 2013 Loan Portability reform increased welfare by 0.2% of annual consumption.
Date: 2025-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dge and nep-fdg
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
https://www.bcb.gov.br/content/publicacoes/WorkingPaperSeries/WP614.pdf (application/pdf)
Related works:
Working Paper: Consumer Loans, Heterogeneous Interest Rates, and Inequality (2025) 
Working Paper: Consumer Loans, Heterogeneous Interest Rates, and Inequality (2025) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bcb:wpaper:614
Access Statistics for this paper
More papers in Working Papers Series from Central Bank of Brazil, Research Department
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Rodrigo Barbone Gonzalez ().