Cultural Affinity and Mortgage Discrimination
回顾并扩展了抵押贷款市场中文化亲和力假说，该假说认为贷款人更容易评估有共同文化背景的申请人，从而导致对少数族裔申请人的歧视。
This article reviews and expands one prominent theoretical source of discrimination in the residential mortgage market: the cultural affinity hypothesis proposed by Calomiris, Kahn, and Longhofer (1994; hereafter CKL). This theory argues that lenders find it easier (or less costly) to evaluate the creditworthiness of applicants with whom they have a common experiential background, or "cultural affinity." As a result, CKL contend that lenders make more mistakes when evaluating minority applicants, which gives them an incentive to discriminate against such applicants. The CKL depiction of the mortgage market is based on the idea that lenders find it easier to assess the true creditworthiness of applicants with whom they have an affinity. This affinity may arise because the applicant and the loan officer share a common cultural background or because the lender has developed specialized expertise in evaluating the creditworthiness of members of a particular group. Thus, a lender's affinity may be considered inherent, learned, or both.