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Do Households Benefit from Financial Deregulation and Innovation? The Case of the Mortgage Market

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  • Kristopher Gerardi
  • Harvey S. Rosen
  • Paul Willen

Abstract

The U.S. mortgage market has experienced phenomenal change over the last 35 years. This paper develops and implements a technique for assessing the impact of changes in the mortgage market on households. Our framework, which is based on the permanent income hypothesis, that allows us to gauge the importance of borrowing constraints by estimating the empirical relationship between the value of a household's home purchase and its future income. We find that over the past several decades, housing markets have become less imperfect in the sense that households are now more able to buy homes whose values are consistent with their long-term income prospects. One issue that has received particular attention is the role that the housing Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, have played in improving the market for housing finance. We find no evidence that the GSEs' activities have contributed to this phenomenon. This is true whether we look at all homebuyers, or at subsamples of the population whom we might expect to benefit particularly from GSE activity, such as low-income households and first-time homebuyers.

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  • Kristopher Gerardi & Harvey S. Rosen & Paul Willen, 2007. "Do Households Benefit from Financial Deregulation and Innovation? The Case of the Mortgage Market," NBER Working Papers 12967, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12967
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    Cited by:

    1. Jonas D. M. Fisher & Martin Gervais, 2011. "Why Has Home Ownership Fallen Among The Young?," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 52(3), pages 883-912, August.
    2. Rose Cunningham & Ilan Kolet, 2007. "Housing Market Cycles and Duration Dependence in the United States and Canada," Staff Working Papers 07-2, Bank of Canada.
    3. Jan Rouwendal, 2009. "Housing Wealth and Household Portfolios in an Ageing Society," De Economist, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 1-48, March.
    4. Jonas D. M. Fisher & Martin Gervais, 2007. "First-time home buyers and residential investment volatility," Working Paper Series WP-07-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
    5. John A. Tatom, 2009. "The U.S. Foreclosure Crisis: A Two-Pronged Assault on the Economy," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Robert R. Bliss & George G. Kaufman (ed.), Financial Institutions and Markets, chapter 6, pages 131-154, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Bulent Guler, 2015. "Innovations in Information Technology and the Mortgage Market," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 18(3), pages 456-483, July.
    7. Morris M. Kleiner & Richard M. Todd, 2007. "Mortgage Broker Regulations That Matter: Analyzing Earnings, Employment, and Outcomes for Consumers," NBER Working Papers 13684, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. Heilpern, Eliot & Haslam, Colin & Andersson, Tord, 2009. "When it comes to the crunch: What are the drivers of the US banking crisis?," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 99-113.
    9. Aimao Zhang, 2012. "An Examination of the Effects of Corruption on Financial Market Volatility," Journal of Emerging Market Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research, vol. 11(3), pages 301-322, December.
    10. Michael LaCour‐Little & Jing Yang, 2010. "Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later: Alternative Mortgage Products and the Mortgage Crisis," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 38(4), pages 687-732, Winter.
    11. Karen E. Dynan & Donald L. Kohn, 2007. "The rise in U.S. household indebtedness: causes and consequences," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2007-37, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    12. Gervais, Martin & Fisher, Jonas, 2009. "Why has home ownership fallen among the young?," Discussion Paper Series In Economics And Econometrics 0907, Economics Division, School of Social Sciences, University of Southampton.
    13. Daniel J. McDonald & Daniel L. Thornton, 2008. "A primer on the mortgage market and mortgage finance," Review, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, vol. 90(Jan), pages 31-46.
    14. Tatom, John, 2007. "The foreclosure crisis: a two-pronged attack on the U.S. economy," MPRA Paper 12499, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Alexei Tchistyi & Tomasz Piskorski, 2008. "Stochastic House Appreciation and Optimal Mortgage Lending," 2008 Meeting Papers 938, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Gary A. Dymski & Jesus Hernandez & Lisa Mohanty, 2011. "Race, Power, and the Subprime/Foreclosure Crisis: A Mesoanalysis," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_669, Levy Economics Institute.
    17. Finn Poschmann, 2011. "What Governments Should Do in Mortgage Markets," C.D. Howe Institute Commentary, C.D. Howe Institute, issue 318, January.
    18. Karen E. Dynan & Douglas W. Elmendorf & Daniel E. Sichel, 2006. "Financial innovation and the Great Moderation: what do household data say?," Proceedings, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, issue Nov.
    19. Gary Dymski & Jesus Hernandez & Lisa Mohanty, 2013. "Race, Gender, Power, and the US Subprime Mortgage and Foreclosure Crisis: A Meso Analysis," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(3), pages 124-151, July.
    20. Morris M. Kleiner & Richard M. Todd, 2009. "Mortgage Broker Regulations That Matter: Analyzing Earnings, Employment, and Outcomes for Consumers," NBER Chapters, in: Studies of Labor Market Intermediation, pages 183-231, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Elaine Fortowsky & Michael LaCour-Little & Eric Rosenblatt & Vincent Yao, 2011. "Housing Tenure and Mortgage Choice," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(2), pages 162-180, February.
    22. Dimitri B. Papadimitriou & Greg Hannsgen & Gennaro Zezza, 2007. "Cracks in the Foundations of Growth: What Will the Housing Debacle Mean for the U.S. Economy?," Economics Public Policy Brief Archive ppb_90, Levy Economics Institute.
    23. Dimitri B. Papadimitriou & Greg Hannsgen & Gennaro Zezza, 2007. "The Effects of a Declining Housing Market on the U.S. Economy," Economics Working Paper Archive wp_506, Levy Economics Institute.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D14 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Household Saving; Personal Finance
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • H89 - Public Economics - - Miscellaneous Issues - - - Other

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