1 option
Market Power in Mortgage Pricing: the Role of Referral Lending / Dayin Zhang, Panle Jia Barwick, Lu Han, Jonathan Kroah.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Zhang, Dayin.
- Series:
- Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w35015.
- NBER working paper series no. w35015
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2026.
- Summary:
- Despite intense competition among mortgage lenders, borrowers face elevated rate spreads and price dispersion. We identify realtor-loan-officer referral networks as a source of lender market power: by steering homebuyers toward a few loan officers, they restrict borrower choice. Linking 78,706 realtors to 101,316 loan officers across 41 states, we find these networks pervasive and concentrated. Instrumenting for referral exposure with realtor-level loan-officer concentration in excess of counterfactual loan-officer choice, referred borrowers pay 18.4 basis points more ($2,585 upfront), with larger premia for Hispanic, Black, and financially constrained households. Referrals reduce search and increase loan officer pricing power both across and within lenders.
- Notes:
- April 2026.
- Print version record
The Penn Libraries is committed to describing library materials using current, accurate, and responsible language. If you discover outdated or inaccurate language, please fill out this feedback form to report it and suggest alternative language.