is affected by a mortgage pricing convention that underestimates co-borrowers' actual creditworthiness. Specifically, we … variation across time in mortgage rates to confirm that the difference in prepayment incidence exists only during a period of … declining mortgage rates. At an aggregate level, we find that geographic areas with higher concentration of co-borrowers are …

Long-term fixed-rate mortgage contracts protect households against interest rate risk, yet most countries have … fixation length tracks the life-cycle decline of credit risk in the mortgage market: the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio decreases … using shorter-term contracts. To quantify demand for long-term contracts, I develop a life-cycle model of optimal mortgage …