On the Use of Collateral
综述了信贷市场中抵押品广泛使用的现有解释，并将其与相关实证证据联系起来。证据不支持抵押品作为项目质量信号的观点，但与其激励特性和不对称评估的解释基本一致。
This paper surveys existing explanations for the pervasive use of collateral in credit markets and relates them to the empirical evidence on the subject. Collateral may be used as a screening or an incentive device in markets characterized by various forms of asymmetric and biased information. The evidence is incompatible with the use of collateral as a signal of projects’ quality, while broadly consistent with explanations based on its incentive properties and asymmetric evaluation of projects.