On December 23, 2003, Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman announced that the United States Department of Agriculture had diagnosed the first U.S. case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), commonly known as “mad cow disease.†This study uses supermarket sales data to analyze the...

This article presents a number of key findings from a review of the data that mortgage lending institutions reported for 2011 under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA). The article documents home-lending activity reflected in the HMDA data and places the 2011 activity in historical context....

This study analyzes the effects of state bankruptcy asset exemptions and foreclosure laws on mortgage default and foreclosure rates across different segments of the mortgage market. We found that the effects of these legal provisions are larger for subprime than for prime mortgages and larger...

We analyze the effects of state predatory mortgage lending laws, which have been a model for recent changes in the United States federal legislation enacted to regulate the mortgage contract terms common in higher-risk mortgage market segments. Using the Rothschild-Stiglitz approach to model...

In their pioneering work, Musto and Souleles (Journal of Monetary Economics 53(1):59–84, <CitationRef CitationID="CR19">2006</CitationRef>) apply portfolio theory to consumer lending. This paper extends their work by analyzing three county-level credit outcome betas. We use the probability of default calibrated from the credit score, the...</citationref>

Subprime mortgage lending is controversial. Its critics see excessive prices, unfair terms and "predatory" practices. Proponents see a much narrower set of problems. Legislative and regulatory solutions to perceive problems are being implemented piecemeal across states and even local...