Real Effects of Search Frictions in Consumer Credit Markets
研究发现，信贷市场中的搜索摩擦会影响借款者接受的利率和贷款规模，并扭曲消费行为。高搜索成本的借款者更可能接受高利率贷款，导致贷款额更小、购买更旧更便宜的汽车。
Abstract We show that search frictions in credit markets affect accepted interest rates and loan sizes and distort consumption. Using data on car loan applications and originations not intermediated by car dealers, we isolate quasi-exogenous variation in both the costs and benefits to searching for credit. After identifying lender-specific policies that price risk discontinuously, we study the differential response to offered interest rates by borrowers who face high and low search costs. High-search-cost borrowers are 10$\%$ more likely to accept loan offers with higher markups, consequently originating smaller loans and purchasing older and less expensive cars than lower-search-cost borrowers. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.