We apply unique loan level data from New Century Financial Corporation, a major subprime lender, to assess whether attributes of Congressional Representatives were associated with access to and pricing of subprime mortgage credit. Research findings indicate higher likelihoods of subprime loan...

We estimate trends in diversification for equity, debt, and real estate within and across countries. After 2000, we uncover a marked and near ubiquitous decline in diversification, which coincides with sharply higher levels of investment risk. This decline is associated with country economic...

Over the years 2000 to 2013, the Los Angeles real estate market featured a boom, a bust, and then another boom. We use this variation to test how the hedonic valuation of school quality varies over the business cycle. Following Black (1999), we exploit a regression discontinuity design at...

Geographic diversification is fundamental to risk mitigation among investors and insurers of housing, mortgages, and mortgage-related derivatives. To characterize diversification potential, we provide estimates of integration, spatial correlation, and contagion among US metropolitan housing...

This study evaluates the effectiveness of geographic diversification in reducing housing investment risk. To characterize diversification potential, we estimate spatial correlation and integration among 401 US metropolitan housing markets. The 2000s boom brought a marked uptrend in housing...

This paper develops a new measure of "quality of the business environment" that complements existing measures of "quality of life". An annual panel of these measures is constructed and analyzed for 37 cities from 1977 to 1995. Findings indicate that many cities attractive to firms are...

While prior analyses have provided substantial evidence of elevated default probabilities among mortgages originated to lower income, less credit worthy and minority borrowers, those risks may be offset by the reduced prepayment probabilities of those loans. To the investor in FHA-insured...

This paper estimates an option-based hazard model of the competing risks of FHA mortgage termination. Results indicate that the elevated default risks of loans originated among lower credit quality and minority borrowers are more than offset by the damped prepayment speeds of those loans, so as...

Fluctuations in the stock market and in house values over the course of recent years have led to renewed macroeconomic policy debate as regards the effects of financial and housing wealth in the determination of consumer spending. This research assembles a unique matched sample of household data...