Lam Family College of Business Professor of Economics Michael Bar was awarded the SFSU Development of Research and Creativity (DRC) grant in the amount of $7,700 to advance his scholarly work on “Measuring Disparities in Housing Finance”. This joint research project is being conducted with Nishanlang Khonglah, an SF State graduate student enrolled in our Master of Arts in Economics degree program.
With the exception of very few wealthy households, the vast majority of home owners purchased their homes with a mortgage. According to Bar’s research, minorities are often left out of the housing market because of discriminatory lending practices (see for example the recent lawsuit against Wells Fargo). This research project uses data to understand which lenders are most likely to discriminate and against which groups. In addition, Bar and Khonglah will attempt to provide evidence of perceived discrimination by analyzing data on mixed-race co-applicants.