Erik Mayer - Research

Publications

Government Litigation Risk and the Decline in Low-Income Mortgage Lending with Scott Frame, Kristopher Gerardi, Billy Xu, and Lawrence Zhao

Journal of Financial Economics, Forthcoming.

Best Paper semifinalist - Financial Management Association Meeting (2023)

Alumni Networks in Venture Capital Financing with Jon Garfinkel, Ilya Strebulaev, and Emmanuel Yimfor

Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Forthcoming.

Best Paper semifinalist - Financial Management Association Meeting (2025)
Media: Wall Street Journal, 2024 OASB Annual Report, Institutional Investor, State Science & Technology Institute, Teknovation

Can Human Capital Explain Income-Based Disparities in Financial Services? with Ruidi Huang, James Linck, and Chris Parsons

Review of Financial Studies, Forthcoming.

The Impact of Minority Representation at Mortgage Lenders with Scott Frame, Ruidi Huang, Erica Jiang, Yeonjoon Lee, Will Liu, and Adi Sunderam

Journal of Finance (2025), 80 (2), 1209-1260. (WP Version)

Media: HBS Working Knowledge, SMU Cox Today, Presentation Recording
Note: This paper combines the working papers "The Impact of Minority Representation at Mortgage Lenders” by Frame, Huang, Mayer, and Sunderam and “Reducing Racial Disparities in Consumer Credit: The Role of Minority Loan Officers in the Era of Algorithmic Underwriting” by Jiang, Lee, and Liu.

Gender Bias in Promotions: Evidence from Financial Institutions with Ruidi Huang and Darius Miller

Review of Financial Studies (2024), 37 (5), 1685-1728. (WP Version)

Best Paper - FMA Napa/Sonoma Finance Conference (2022)
Media: SMU Cox Today

Big Banks, Household Credit Access, and Intergenerational Economic Mobility

Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (2024), 59 (6), 2933-2969. (WP Version)

Best Paper - Columbia/BPI Research Conference (2020)
Media: SMU Cox Bulletin

Racial Disparities in the Auto Loan Market with Alex Butler and James Weston

Review of Financial Studies (2023), 36 (1), 1-41. Editor's Choice and Lead Article. (WP Version)

Best Paper semifinalist - Financial Management Association Meeting (2019)
Media: Bloomberg (Matt Levine), Consumer Reports (1, 2, and 3), Rice Business Wisdom, Presentation Recording

Advertising, Investor Attention, and Stock Prices: Evidence from a Natural Experiment

Financial Management (2021), 50 (1), 281-314. (WP Version)

Best Paper - Eastern Finance Association Meeting (2015)

Working Papers (* indicates presentation by coauthor)

Human Capital and Local Credit Supply: Evidence from the Mortgage Industry with Ruidi Huang, Sheridan Titman, and David Xu

This paper investigates the interaction between the labor market for loan officers and local residential mortgage markets. We find that shocks to local mortgage demand have little effect on the number of local loan officers but affect their average workloads and the fraction of remotely originated mortgages. However, evidence from shocks to the supply of local loan officers shows that these responses are not perfect substitutes for the presence of loan officers. Local loan officers increase access to mortgage credit, the efficiency of the mortgage application process, and households' refinancing decisions. Overall, our findings suggest that labor immobility can distort local credit supply and reduce capital allocation efficiency.

Best Paper finalist - Northern Finance Association Meeting (2025)
Best Paper semifinalist - Financial Management Association Meeting (2025)
Presentations 2026: AREUEA-ASSA Conference; 2025: Midwest Finance Association*, Northern Finance Association*, St. Louis Fed Annual Workshop on Financial Institutions*, Real Estate Finance & Investment Symposium*, Financial Management Association*; 2024: Baylor University*

Nepo Credit: The Effect of Borrowed Credit Histories with Alex Butler, Alan Crane, and Asli Uyanik

The intergenerational transfer of credit histories through authorized user (AU) status affects credit outcomes. About 16% of young adults benefit from AU status each year, gaining credit histories that pre-date their own financial activity. Using variation in the age at which individuals are added as AUs, we identify substantial gains to AU status: credit scores rise by 22-42 points, and access to credit cards and credit in broader markets increases. However, AU borrowers are more likely to default than others with similar credit scores, suggesting that AU histories inflate scores and reinforce inequality in credit access.

Presentations 2026: Eastern Finance Association (scheduled); 2025: University of Minnesota Finance Department Junior Conference, Rice University, University of Wisconsin, University of North Texas

Audit Partners and Loan Loss Provisioning: Evidence from U.S. Bank Holding Companies with Gauri Bhat, Hemang Desai, Christoffer Koch, and Nitzan Tzur-Ilan

Using confidential data on audit partner names from 2006 to 2019 for bank holding companies (BHCs), we examine partners’ impact on loan loss provisioning. Using a fixed effects approach, we find some evidence that individual partners affect provisioning, especially at public BHCs and BHCs audited by large audit firms. However, these results do not obtain in the post-financial crisis period. We also examine the association between partner tenure and provisioning. We find that allowance is increasing in partner tenure, particularly for public BHCs and small BHCs. The result for small BHCs is obtained in the post-financial crisis period as well. Thus, partner heterogeneity is more likely to manifest during periods of high economic uncertainty, but otherwise, there seems to be consistency in approach to audits across partners within a firm. Our results also suggest that audit scrutiny increases as the partners stay longer with the engagement, especially for small BHCs.

Presentations 2023: FARS Midyear Meeting*; 2022: Rice University*, Tulane University*

Work in Progress

Intergenerational Effects of Unemployment Insurance: Evidence from Tax Data with Connor Cole, Ruidi Huang, Corbin Miller, and Barton Willage

Presentations 2024: Royal Economic Society Annual Conference*; 2023: American Economic Association, NBER Summer Institute on Children*, European Association of Labour Economists Conference, National Tax Association Annual Conference*; 2022: Office of Tax Analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury

Resting Papers

Credit Where Credit is Due: Drivers of Subprime Credit with Elizabeth Berger and Alex Butler

Presentations 2018: Texas Finance Festival*, CFPB Research Conference, University of Washington*, University of Rochester*, Vanderbilt University*, Lancaster University*
Media: Jalopnik

Publications in Other Academic Fields

Investing in a New Role to Increase Timely Morning Discharges in the Inpatient Setting with Yuliya Oumarbaeva-Malone, Kaitlyn McQuistion, Grace Quinn, and Paul Manicone

Hospital Pediatrics (2025), 15 (1), 9-16.