Hurricane Harvey brought more than four feet of rainfall to the Houston area in August 2017, leading to substantial flooding in many areas. Using regulatory data with detailed information on borrowing terms, we compare the borrowing response to Hurricane Harvey in parts of Houston that were more...

We study how fiscal policy affects the transmission of monetary policy using the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 as a natural experiment. The TCJA capped deductions for state and local taxes, (SALT), and increased the standard deduction, causing many households to switch from itemizing to...

We study the role of mortgage servicers in implementing the CARES Act mortgage forbearance program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite universal eligibility,we document that a significant number of federally backed mortgage borrowers be-come delinquent during the pandemic without successfully...

We study how intermediaries—mortgage servicers—shaped the implementation of mortgage forbearance during the COVID-19 pandemic and use servicer-level variation to trace out the causal effect of forbearance on borrowers. Forbearance provision varied widely across servicers. Small servicers and...

We study the role of mortgage servicers in implementing the CARES Act mortgage forbearance program during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite universal eligibility, we document that a significant number of federally backed mortgage borrowers become delinquent during the pandemic without successfully...

The contrast between the labor market and house prices during the pandemic has been stark. In this note, we document a strong positive relationship between forbearance takeup and house price growth at the county level, controlling for the unemployment rate and other factors

The Home Affordable Modification Program's Principal Reduction Alternative (HAMP PRA) is a government-sponsored program to reduce the principal balances and monthly mortgage payments of borrowers with negative equity (mortgage balances in excess of their home value, or “under water”) who are...

The foreclosure crisis that began in 2008 triggered the need for new approaches to treat distressed mortgages. A key component of the Obama Administration's Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was the development of a standardized Net Present Value (NPV) model to identify troubled loans...

The foreclosure crisis that began in 2008 triggered the need for standardized tools to evaluate distressed mortgages as candidates for modification. A key component of the Obama Administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) was the development of a standardized Net Present Value...