This text presents a collection of research papers and discussions commissioned to commemorate the silver anniversary of Georgetown University's Credit Research Center in 1999. Nine topics serve as focal points for the volume, with the general theme "What do we know, what do we need to know about the functioning of consumer credit markets at the beginning of the 21st century?". Because the growth of household debt and the consequences of household debt burden have dominated discussion in both the media and policy arenas for decades, "Credit Growth and the Burden of Debt" is the theme for the first group of three papers. The papers address the cultural evolution of consumer credit in the US, the rise in consumer indebtedness and the alarming surge in personal bankruptcies. A second grouping of three papers takes a distinctly policy-oriented tack and examines questions regarding consumer access to credit (mortgage markets and evidence of discrimination), consumer protection through mandatory disclosure of information (Truth-in-Lending regulations), and the general state of financial literacy among the population of young consumers entering credit markets for the first time.The final three papers in this volume examine how technological innovations in risk management (through statistical risk scoring models), marketing (through use of personal information for targeted marketing) and finance (through securitization of consumer loans) have impacted the availability of credit products and sparked new public policy questions.
