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Banking and Finance Law

Boston University School of Law

Faculty Scholarship

Economics

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Inflation, Market Failures, And Algorithms, Rory Van Loo Sep 2022

Inflation, Market Failures, And Algorithms, Rory Van Loo

Faculty Scholarship

Inflation is a problem of tremendous scale. But inflation itself is unlikely to cause the greatest economic harm during inflationary periods. Instead, a more likely source of devastation will be policymakers’ response to inflation. Their main anti-inflation tools, most notably increasing interest rates, increase unemployment and the risk of recessions. This Article argues that there is a better approach. Rather than defaulting to interest rate hikes that harm markets, policy makers should prioritize laws that lower prices while improving markets. For decades, businesses have raised prices by manipulating consumers, exercising monopoly power, and lobbying for laws that block competition. Automated …


Lending Discrimination: Economic Theory, Econometric Evidence, And The Community Reinvestment Act, Keith N. Hylton, Vincent D. Rougeau Dec 1996

Lending Discrimination: Economic Theory, Econometric Evidence, And The Community Reinvestment Act, Keith N. Hylton, Vincent D. Rougeau

Faculty Scholarship

Although it has been settled law for almost two decades, there has been a heightened interest in the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) over the last several years. One factor driving this interest is the continuing economic decline of the inner cities and the consequent widening of the wealth gap between cities and surrounding suburbs in many areas of the country. A second factor is the consolidation of the banking industry, which has encouraged expansion-oriented banks to improve their CRA ratings to gain the approval of regulators. A recent effort to enhance enforcement of the statute, in part the result of …