We study how the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing (QE) influenced the behavior of Agency mortgage real estate investment trusts (REITs) - a set of institutions identified by the Financial Stability Oversight Council as posing systemic risk. We document that Agency mortgage REITs: [i] equity...

We study how a reduction in financial constraints faced by homeowners affects consumption, and in turn employment creation and the skill composition of the workforce over the business cycle. We leverage a wide set of Danish administrative registries, and implement a difference-in-differences...

Can concern with relative standing, which has been shown to influence consumption and labor supply, also increase borrowing and the likelihood of financial distress? We find that perceived peer income contributes to debt and the likelihood of financial distress among those who consider...

In this paper, we investigate the relation between buildings' energy efficiency and the probability of mortgage default. To this end, we construct a novel panel dataset by combining Dutch loan-level mortgage information with provisional building energy ratings that are calculated by the...

We analyze the effect of import competition on household balance sheets from 2000 to 2007 using individual data on consumer finances. We exploit variation in exposure to foreign competition using industry-level shipping costs and initial differences in regions' industry specialization. We show...

In South Africa, there is currently little research available on mortgage defaultand the determinants of default. The purpose of this research was to evaluateand distinguish between mortgage specific factors (including borrower and loancharacteristics), driving mortgage default patterns in South...

In South Africa, there is currently little research available on mortgage defaultand the determinants of default. The purpose of this research was to evaluateand distinguish between mortgage specific factors (including borrower and loancharacteristics), driving mortgage default patterns in South...