Property taxes impact the housing distribution across generations. Low property taxes lead to concentrated ownership among elderly empty-nesters, limiting housing for financially constrained young families. Conversely, high property taxes act as a “forced mortgage,” reducing upfront...

Property taxes impact the housing distribution across generations. Low property taxes lead to concentrated ownership among elderly empty-nesters, limiting housing for financially constrained young families. Conversely, high property taxes act as a “forced mortgage,” reducing upfront...

We document that racial disparities in COVID-19 in New York City stem from patterns of commuting and housing crowding. During the initial wave of the pandemic, out- of-home activity related to commuting is strongly associated with COVID-19 cases at the ZIP Code level and hospitalization at an...

We document large-scale urban flight in the United States in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Populations that flee are disproportionately younger, whiter, and wealthier. Regions that saw migrant influx experience greater subsequent COVID-19 case growth, suggesting that urban flight was a...

We propose a structural mortgage prepayment model, where mortgage holders have to allocate costly attention to implement prepayment decisions, and apply the model to US prime mortgages. Our empirical results suggest that commonly observed refinancing mistakes, such as choosing a financially...

This paper studies the optimal mortgage refinancing problem of a behavioral household who is present-biased and inattentive to mortgage rates. In solving the problem, I derive the first closed-form optimal refinancing rule of a behavioral household, enabling the estimation of the model. I...