The impact of mortgage broker use on borrower confusion and preferences
通过两个实地实验，研究了抵押贷款经纪人如何影响借款人对贷款特征的困惑程度，发现使用经纪人的借款人困惑更高但决策满意度也更高，且更愿意为增加贷款价值和期限的属性付费。
We examine how mortgage brokers affect borrower confusion about key mortgage features and assess whether brokers mitigate confusion by educating borrowers. Drawing from two lab-in-the-field experiments, we first show a correlation between the attributes borrowers find most confusing and those they find least important. Second, we show that borrowers who secure loans directly from lenders demonstrate lower confusion levels compared to those using brokers, even after accounting for self-selection bias. Despite this, broker users exhibit higher decision satisfaction and confidence after taking a loan. Third, using responses from discrete choice experiments to implement a causal mediation analysis with a single IV, we evaluate the influence of broker use, financial literacy, and subjective confusion on borrowers’ willingness to pay for specific mortgage attributes. Our findings reveal that broker users are willing to pay more for attributes that increase the value and duration of loans, increasing broker commissions.