We use quasi-random access to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) to identify the causal effect of refinancing … a mortgage on borrower balance sheet outcomes. We find that on average, refinancing into a lower-rate mortgage reduced … borrowers' default rates on mortgages and nonmortgage debts by about 40 percent and 25 percent, respectively. Refinancing also …

We model mortgage refinancing as a bargaining game involving the borrowing household, the incumbent lender, and an … set containing the population of mortgages in Belgium. In particular, households' refinancing propensities are positively …