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The GSE implicit subsidy and value of government ambiguity

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Author Info
Wayne Passmore
Abstract

The housing-related government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the "GSEs") have an ambiguous relationship with the federal government. Most purchasers of the GSEs' debt securities believe that this debt is implicitly backed by the U.S. government despite the lack of a legal basis for such a belief. In this paper, I estimate how much GSE shareholders gain from this ambiguous government relationship. I find that (1) the federal government's implicit subsidy of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac has resulted in a funding advantage for the GSEs over private sector institutions, (2) the actions of GSEs result in slightly lower mortgage rates for some homeowners, (3) the government's ambiguous relationship with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac imparts a substantial implicit subsidy to GSE shareholders, (4) the implicit government subsidy accounts for much of the GSEs' market value, (5) the GSEs would hold far fewer of their mortgage-backed securities in portfolio and their capital-to-asset ratios would be higher if they were purely private, and (6) the GSEs' implicit subsidy does not appear to have substantially increased homeownership or homebuilding.

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Paper provided by Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.) in its series Finance and Economics Discussion Series with number 2003-64.

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Date of creation: 2003
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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2003-64

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Keywords: Federal National Mortgage Association ; Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation ; Federal home loan banks ; Government-sponsored enterprises;

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This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports: References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Brent W. Ambrose & Michael LaCour-Little & Anthony B. Sanders, 2004. "The Effect of Conforming Loan Status on Mortgage Yield Spreads: A Loan Level Analysis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 32(4), pages 541-569, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. John L. Goodman, Jr. & S. Wayne Passmore, 1992. "Market power and the pricing of mortgage securitization," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 187, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
  3. Heuson, Andrea & Passmore, Wayne & Sparks, Roger, 2001. "Credit Scoring and Mortgage Securitization: Implications for Mortgage Rates and Credit Availability," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 337-63, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Ambrose, Brent W & Warga, Arthur, 2002. "Measuring Potential GSE Funding Advantages," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2-3), pages 129-50, Sept.-Dec. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Steven A. Sharpe, 2002. "Reexamining Stock Valuation and Inflation: The Implications Of Analysts' Earnings Forecasts," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 84(4), pages 632-648, 06. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  6. James E. Pearce & James C. Miller, III, 2001. "Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: their funding advantage and benefits to consumers," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue May, pages 101-117.
  7. David Reifschneider & Robert Tetlow & John Williams, 1999. "Aggregate disturbances, monetary policy, and the macroeconomy: the FRB/US perspective," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Jan, pages 1-19. [Downloadable!]
  8. Barakova, Irina & Bostic, Raphael W. & Calem, Paul S. & Wachter, Susan M., 2003. "Does credit quality matter for homeownership?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 318-336, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  9. Sanders, Anthony B, 2002. "Government Sponsored Agencies: Do the Benefits Outweigh the Costs?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2-3), pages 121-27, Sept.-Dec. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Passmore, Wayne & Sparks, Roger, 1996. "Putting the Squeeze on a Market for Lemons: Government-Sponsored Mortgage Securitization," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 13(1), pages 27-43, July.
  11. Glenn B. Canner & Wayne Passmore & Brian J. Surette, 1996. "Distribution of credit risk among providers of mortgages to lower- income and minority homebuyers," Federal Reserve Bulletin, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.), issue Dec, pages 1077-1102.
  12. William Poole, 2003. "Housing in the macroeconomy," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue May, pages 1-8. [Downloadable!]
  13. Ambrose, Brent W & Buttimer, Richard & Thibodeau, Thomas, 2001. "A New Spin on the Jumbo/Conforming Loan Rate Differential," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 309-35, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  14. Topel, Robert H & Rosen, Sherwin, 1988. "Housing Investment in the United States," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 718-40, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Alden L. Toevs, 2001. "A critique of the CBO's sponsorship benefit analysis," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, issue May, pages 150-164.
  16. Nelson, Charles R & Siegel, Andrew F, 1987. "Parsimonious Modeling of Yield Curves," Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(4), pages 473-89, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  17. Nothaft, Frank E & Pearce, James E & Stevanovic, Stevan, 2002. "Debt Spreads between GSEs and Other Corporations," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2-3), pages 151-72, Sept.-Dec. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Naranjo, Andy & Toevs, Alden, 2002. "The Effects of Purchases of Mortgages and Securitization By Government Sponsored Enterprises on Mortgage Yield Spreads and Volatility," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2-3), pages 173-95, Sept.-Dec. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  19. Bolder, David & Streliski, David, 1999. "Yield Curve Modelling at the Bank of Canada," Technical Reports 84, Bank of Canada. [Downloadable!]
  20. James F. Gatti & Ronald W. Spahr, 1997. "The Value of Federal Sponsorship: The Case of Freddie Mac," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 25(3), pages 453-485. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  21. Wayne Passmore & Roger W. Sparks, 2000. "Automated Underwriting and the Profitability of Mortgage Securitization," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 28(2), pages 285-305. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  22. Quercia, Roberto G. & McCarthy, George W. & Wachter, Susan M., 2003. "The impacts of affordable lending efforts on homeownership rates," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(1), pages 29-59, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Mikkel Svenstrup & Soren Willemann, 2006. "Reforming Housing Finance - Perspectives from Denmark," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 28(2), pages 105-130. [Downloadable!]
  2. Willemann, Søren, 2005. "GSE Funding Advantages and Mortgagor Benefits: Answers from Asset Pricing," Finance Research Group Working Papers F-2005-04, University of Aarhus, Aarhus School of Business, Department of Business Studies. [Downloadable!]
  3. Frank A. Schmid, 2005. "Stock return and interest rate risk at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, issue Jan, pages 35-48. [Downloadable!]
  4. Rosalind L. Bennett & Mark D. Vaughan & Timothy J. Yeager, 2005. "Should the FDIC worry about the FHLB? The impact of Federal Home Loan Bank advances on the Bank Insurance Fund," Working Paper 05-05, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. [Downloadable!]
  5. Lawrence White & W. Scott Frame, 2004. "Fussing and Fuming over Fannie and Freddie: How Much Smoke, How Much Fire?," Working Papers 04-27, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics. [Downloadable!]
  6. W. Scott Frame & Lawrence J. White, 2004. "Fussing and fuming over Fannie and Freddie: how much smoke, how much fire?," Working Paper 2004-26, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. [Downloadable!]
  7. Robert A. Eisenbeis & W. Scott Frame & Larry D. Wall, 2004. "Resolving large financial intermediaries: banks versus housing enterprises," Working Paper 2004-23, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. [Downloadable!]
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