Throughout Joseph Stiglitz's long and distinguished career in economics, the focus has been on the real world, with all of its imperfections. His 2001 Nobel Prize recognized his pioneering research in imperfect information; his work in other areas, including macroeconomics, public economics, and...

Although the United States has developed highly sophisticated markets for funding corporate investment projects, markets for financing home ownership are comparatively rudimentary. When a corporation wishes to fund a project, it can choose any mix of debt and equity financing. In contrast, to...