This paper explores the practice of mortgage refinancing in a dynamic competitive lending model with risky borrowers … prevents the mortgage pools from becoming disproportionately composed of the riskiest borrowers over time. Mortgages with … prepayment penalties allow lenders to lower mortgage rates and extend credit to the least creditworthy, with the largest benefits …

leverage, precautionary saving in liquid assets and illiquid home equity, debt repayment, mortgage refinancing, and default …