Dayin Zhang

We would like to thank the discussants, Luis Lopez and David Zhang, as well as seminar participants at WFA, ASSA-AREUEA Conference, the Singapore Management University, UW-Madison and University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, for their helpful comments. All remaining errors are our own. We have no financial relationships to disclose. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

English Français Deutsch Italiano 中文 More Español Ελληνικά 日本語 Português Türkçe Despite intense competition among mortgage lenders, borrowers continue to face elevated rate spreads and substantial price dispersion. We argue that realtor–loan officer referral networks are a key source of lender market power: by steering homebuyers toward a limited set of loan officers, these networks restrict effective borrower choice even in otherwise competitive markets.