We demonstrate that asymmetric information between sellers (loan originators) and purchasers (investors and securities issuers) of commercial mortgages gives rise to a standard “lemons problem”, whereby portfolio lenders use private information to liquidate lower quality loans in CMBS...

Despite recent volatility and constraints in secondary market funding, analysts have ascribed substantial value creation to the securitization of commercial mortgages. Such value creation likely emanates from enhancements to originator liquidity, tranching of claims on cash-flows, gains from...

We document changes in borrowers' sensitivity to negative equity and show heightened borrower default propensity as a fundamental driver of crisis period mortgage defaults. Estimates of a time-varying coefficient competing risk hazard model reveal a marked run-up in the default option beta from...

We provide new evidence of cyclical variation in mortgage default option exercise. For a given level of negative equity, borrower propensity to default rose markedly during the financial crisis and in hard-hit metropolitan areas. Analysis of time-series and panel data indicates the importance of...

We investigate the impact of 2020 COVID-19 rental eviction moratoria on household well-being. Analysis of new panel data indicates that eviction moratoria reduced evictions and resulted in redirection of scarce household financial resources to immediate consumption needs, notably including food...

We evaluate the impact of extreme US wildfires and related smoke and air pollution events on household mobility, housing and financial outcomes. The analysis relies on information on the fire burn footprint and related structure damage from the US National Incident Command System,...