In Housing Economics, filtering is the process by which properties, as they age, depreciate in quality and hence price and thus tend to be purchased by lower-income households. This is the primary mechanism by which competitive markets supply low-income housing. While at the national level...

This paper examines the impact of refinancing on mortgage defaults based on an empirical investigation of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). We study a unique dataset from Freddie Mac which includes loans funded right before and after the HARP eligibility cutoff date, an exogenous...

This paper examines the impact of refinancing on mortgage defaults based on an empirical investigation of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). We study a unique dataset from Freddie Mac which includes loans funded right before and after the HARP eligibility cutoff date, an exogenous...

This paper offers a new method for nonparametric estimation - based on the Cobb-Douglas form - that is simple, easy to interpret, efficient among the class of all linear nonparametric estimators, and nearly efficient among all nonparametric estimators. Thus empirical analysts who prefer the...

This paper identifies an important mechanism through which the homeownership gap among racial groups can be narrowed. The effects of skills achieved in early adulthood—as measured by the Armed Forces Qualifying Test (AFQT) score, the Rotter score, and a Social skill score based on Demings...

We show that a simple, intuitive variable, GVD (Goliath versus David) reflects time-variation in discount rates related to changes in aggregate business conditions. GVD is the annual change in the weight of the largest 250 firms in the aggregate stock market, and is motivated by research that...