The economic dislocations caused by the coronavirus pandemic will almost certainly result in economic contraction. There have been calls for bold actions to attenuate the effects of this contraction and also to provide cash for struggling Americans whose incomes may be temporarily disrupted. But...

I measure the effect of mortgage debt-to-income restrictions on house prices using a change in the eligibility requirements imposed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I show that in 1999 Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's debt-to-income rules diverged, leading to tighter lending standards in places where...

We expand the debate on incentives embedded in the originate-to-distribute lending model by presenting evidence on the placement of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) with mutual funds. We do so by capitalizing on a unique testing platform encompassing institutional holdings of private-label MBS...

The late 1990s through the mid-2000s was a period of historic growth in mortgage lending and house prices and there is intense debate over whether lending growth was a cause or consequence of house price growth. I show that lending growth was strongest for lower-income and minority borrowers....

I provide new evidence on the boom and bust in the housing market during the mid-2000s. The boom actually began in the late 1990s, paused briefly in 2001, and then resumed through the mid-2000s. Moreover, the boom was indeed greatly pronounced among lower-income and higher-minority...

Following the global financial crisis, macroprudential regulators in a number of countries took actions to mitigate risks arising from stressed mortgage markets to financial and economic stability. Having disaggregated information on the stock of mortgages allows policymakers to analyse...

The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has stated that its goal is to foster sustainable homeownership. In this paper, we propose some metrics for evaluating the degree to which the FHA is attaining this goal for first-time homebuyers. This work uses New York Fed Consumer Credit Panel data to...

This paper studies the Continuous Workout Mortgage (CWM), a two in one product: a fixed rate home loan coupled with negative equity insurance, to advocate its viability in mitigating financial fragility. In order to tackle the many issues that CWMs embrace, we perform a range of tasks. We...

I investigate the spillover effects of disclosure requirements imposed by state governments on oil and gas companies operating in the state. Recently, several state governments have begun requiring companies to publicly disclose information about chemicals used in their fracking operations. The...