This paper takes a skeptical look at a leading argument about what is causing the foreclosure crisis and what should be done to stop it. We use an economic model to focus on two key decisions: the borrower's choice to default on a mortgage and the lender's subsequent choice whether to...

Securitization does not explain the reluctance among lenders to renegotiate home mortgages. We focus on seriously delinquent borrowers from 2005 through the third quarter of 2008 and show that servicers renegotiate similarly small fractions of securitized and portfolio loans. The results are...

The Hudson-Jorgenson Energy/Economic Model - formally known as the Long Term Interindustry Transactions Model (LITM) - is an econometric model of the structure of the US economy. LITM integrates two separate models into one integrated system. These models are the Macroeconomic Model, a growth...