Coinciding with the start of the housing boom were large increases in home-equity lending and loan-to-equity ratios. We study this in models where housing bears a liquidity premium because it collateralizes loans. Even with fundamentals constant, since liquidity depends on beliefs,...

We study economies where houses, in addition to providing utility as shelter, may also facilitate credit transactions, since home equity can be used as collateral. We document there were big increases in home-equity-backed consumption loans coinciding with the start of the house price boom, and...

Housing, in addition to providing direct utility, facilitates credit transactions when home equity serves as collateral. We document big increases in home-equity loans coinciding with the start of the house-price boom, and suggest an explanation. When it is used as collateral, housing can bear a...

This working paper was written by Chao Gu (University of Missouri), Guido Menzio (New York University and NBER), Randall Wright (Zhejiang University, University of Wisconsin - Madison and NBER) and Yu Zhu (Bank of Canada).During the financial crisis, relatively centralized markets functioned...

This paper studies dynamic general equilibrium models where firms trade capital in frictional markets. Gains from trade arise due to ex ante heterogeneity: some firms are better at investment, so they build capital in the primary market; others acquire it in the secondary market. Cases are...

During the financial crisis apparently centralized markets continued to function while trade in OTC markets froze. We use search-and-bargaining theory to ascertain conditions that allow trade to temporarily freeze in decentralized markets, focusing on the roles of liquidity and self-fulfilling...