Reducing Racial Disparities in Consumer Credit: Evidence from Anonymous Loan Applications

We examine a unique experiment of anonymizing online loan applications to test whether race-blind screening procedures reduce racial disparities in consumer credit. With names on applications, minority applicants are 10% less likely to receive online loan offers and receive worse offer terms than otherwise identical majority applicants. Anonymizing applications reduces such disparities substantially. High-income minority applicants benefit more than low-income minorities. We show that the racial disparities are not driven by differences in credit demand. Overall, anonymous loan applications reduce racial disparities in access to credit by increasing lender reliance on objective credit risk measures. This paper was accepted by Kay Giesecke, finance. Funding: This research is supported by the Ministry of Education, Singapore, under its Social Science Research Thematic Grant [Grant MOE2019-SSRTG-024]. P. Kabir acknowledges financial support from the National University of Singapore (NUS) [Start-Up Grant A-0003875-00-00] and the Singapore Ministry of Education [Academic Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 1 Research Grant A-8000758-00-00 & A-8000760-00-00]. T. Ruan acknowledges financial support from the Singapore Ministry of Education [AcRF Tier 1 Research Grant A-8000757-00-00]. Supplemental Material: The internet appendix and data files are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2024.05026 .

• 저널Management Science · 72(3) · 2326–2344
• 토픽Names, Identity, and Discrimination Research · Sociology and Political Science
• DOI10.1287/mnsc.2024.05026
• 저자Poorya Kabir, Tianyue Ruan