Data and welfare in credit markets

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jansen, Mark; Nagel, Fabian; Yannelis, Constantine; Zhang, Anthony Lee
• 署名单位: Utah System of Higher Education; University of Utah; Stanford University; University of Cambridge; University of Chicago
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0304-405X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2025.104171
• 发表日期: 2025-12
• 页码: 104171
• 关键词: credit markets; Data availability; welfare; price discrimination; consumers-surplus; big data; INFORMATION; GROWTH

摘要

We show how to measure the welfare effects arising from increased data availability. When lenders have more data on prospective borrower costs, they can charge prices that are more aligned with these costs. This increases total social welfare and transfers surplus across borrower types. We show that under certain assumptions the magnitudes of these welfare changes can be estimated using only quantity and price data. Applying our methodology to bankruptcy flag removal, we find that in a counterfactual world where bankruptcy flags are never removed from credit reports, previously-bankrupt borrowers' surplus decreases substantially, whereas efficiency increases only modestly.