This paper proceeds as follows. We first identify the essential services provided by a financial system and then derive the characteristics of the system that would exist in a technologically advanced society unfettered by nonneutral taxes and regulations. Next we consider how taxes and...

This paper examines the portfolio choice of savings and loan associations (SLAS) between mortgages and bonds, first in a certainty world and then under uncertainty. Differences in servicing and transactions costs, in default losses, in tax treatment and in the timing of payments are accounted...

Spreads between yields on different mortgage instruments and comparable maturity portfolios of Treasury securities have been computed and compared with quoted yields over the 1974-82 period for three different mortgage instruments: GNMA pass-throughs, FHLMC participation certificates, and...

Early federal housing finance policy appears to have been largely directed at making mortgages more marketable. The creation of FHA, FNMA and FHLMC were designed to homogenize the mortgage instrument and to develop a secondary market for it. Apparently because of a lack of demand for...

During the Last three years mortgage rates have risen relative to yields on comparable maturity bonds. The questions addressed in the present paper are what is the extent of this increase and to what is it attributable? We find the increase between early 198 and early 1981 in coupon rates on...

The paper begins with the development of models explaining the mortgage refinancing and assumption decisions of households Having identified the economic variables influencing these decisions, we then simulate the models for different values to determine under what conditions households will...