I develop a structural model of mortgage demand and lender competition to study how leverage regulation affects the equilibrium in the UK mortgage market. Using variation in risk-weighted capital requirements across lenders and across mortgages with differential loan-to-values, I show that a...

We examine when it might be optimal for borrowers to switch providers of debt products such as their mortgage, allowing in particular for the role of uncertainty by constructing a stylized real options model of the decision problem involved. We illustrate with numerical examples, and then...

Since the Spring of 2009, Dutch mortgage rates have been structurally high, both in comparison to the rest of Europe and to funding costs. This paper reviews the debate on possible causes, which are of two kinds: (i) the higher mortgage rates reflect higher funding costs; and (ii) softer...

How do primary and secondary mortgage markets interact? This paper shows that funding shocks to mortgage originators interact with the degree of local credit market competition to increase lending growth. Specifically, I use a shift-share approach to estimate the causal effect of the growth in...

We provide a framework for empirical analysis of negotiated-price markets. Using mortgage market data and a search and negotiation model, we characterize the welfare impact of search frictions and quantify the role of search costs and brand loyalty for market power. Search frictions reduce...

We analyze daily mortgage rates posted by online lenders at the price comparison site, Microsurf. While cost shocks occurred almost daily in our sample, quoted mortgage rates are surprisingly rigid: Only 16 percent of the posted rates represent changes. However, firms that adjusted rates in...

This paper uses a unique data set on more than 600,000 mortgagecontracts to estimate a credit supply function which allows for risk-heterogeneity. Non-linearity is modeled using quantile regressions. Wepropose an instrumental variable approach in which changes in the taxtreatment of housing...

The crisis enveloping global financial markets since August 2007 was triggered by actual and prospective credit losses on US mortgages. Was the United States just unlucky to have been the first to experience a housing crisis? Or was it inherently more susceptible to one? I examine the limited...

We solve the problem of optimal securitization for an issuer facing heterogeneous investorswith arbitrary time and risk preferences. We show that the optimal securitizationis characterized by multiple nonlinear tranches, and each investor gets a portfolio of thesetranches. In particular, when...

We show that since 1994, branching deregulations in the U.S have signi…cantly af-fected the supply of mortgage credit, and ultimately house prices. With deregulation,the number and volume of originated mortgage loans increase, while denial rates fall.But the deregulation has no effect on a...