This paper considers optimal unemployment insurance (UI) with unobserved search e¤ort and savings. Assuming linear search costs, it develops new variational arguments which identify a solution to the necessary conditions for optimality. The structure of the optimal UI program has unusual, yet highly intuitive, properties. A numerical example …nds the optimal policy is well approximated by a lum...

This study considers the impact of trustworthiness on financial markets at the individual transaction level. We employ a natural experiment using the peer-to-peer lending site, Prosper.com. We find that borrowers who are perceived as less trustworthy are economically and significantly less likely to have their loan requests filled, even controlling for physical attractiveness, detailed demograp...

Borrower level data from over 1,000 agricultural lending relationships are used to examine how several factors influence the costs and returns of extending agricultural credit. The characteristics of agricultural borrowers and their demand for various financial products and services are described. The results also provide estimates of the costs and returns of agricultural lending and the extent...

Internationally medical student debt is a cause of concern. A survey of medical students in UCC (response rate of 191 representing 35% of the EU student cohort) reveals that 34 (26%) of direct entry medicine (DEM) students and 36 (61%) graduate entrants (GEM) have a loan with an anticipated average debt of Euro17,300 and Euro80,000 on graduation respectively. Fifty-three (90%) graduate entrants...

Farmland values are booming across much of the nation and farm credit conditions are solid. There are few exceptions to these broad-based trends according to results of surveys of agricultural credit conditions conducted by several Federal Reserve district banks. Farm and ranch land values have been climbing in recent years, but have showed particular strength since mid-2004. Strong farm income...

Mystery shopping is a well known marketing technique used by companies and marketing analysts to measure quality of service, and gather information about products and services. In this article, we analyse data from mystery shopping surveys via Bayesian networks in order to examine and evaluate the quality of service offered by the loan departments of Greek banks. We use mystery shopping visits ...

Weinberg • Special communication M educational debt can be a daunting task for a young physician in the United States. Tuition continues to rise at public and private schools across the country. Higher tuition typically necessitates increased borrowing. In the 2002 Medical School Graduation Questionnaire: All School[s] Report, the Association of American Medical Colleges reports that the mean d...

This paper uses a new survey-based data set and a model with strong theoretical underpinnings to explain the characteristics and behaviour of discouraged borrowers in the euro area. The results show that more borrowers are discouraged when the average interest rate charged by banks in a country is higher. Higher corporate tax rates, on the other hand, lead to lower discouragement. We show that ...

Using data from a Canadian field experiment on financial barriers to higher education, we estimate the distribution of value aid for prospective students. We find that considerable share students perceive significant credit constraints. Most individuals are willing pay sizable interest premium above prevailing market rate option take up loan, with median wedge equal 6.8 percentage points $1,000...