The paper introduces effort-centric fairness to address masked inequality in lending decisions.
problem Masked inequality in lending decisions where rejected applicants face unequal burdens in reaching future approval.
method Developed an effort-centric framework measuring effort as minimum weighted cost of feasible changes, distinguishing feature-independent actions from structural shifts. Defined parity by comparing average minimum effort across protected groups and embedded in an in-processing fairness objective.
result Effort parity complements predictive fairness by revealing and mitigating hidden barriers to future credit access while making operational trade-offs explicit.