We study complexity in the market for securitized products, a market at the heart of the
financial crisis of 2007–9. The complexity of these products rose substantially in the years …

Redlining occurs when financial institutions refuse to serve particular neighborhoods, often
based on their racial and ethnic composition. Maps like those infamously created by the …

From 1999 to 2013, US mortgage debt doubled before contracting sharply. I estimate
mortgage inflows and outflows that shed light on the sources of volatility. During the boom …

This article reviews what we know about the causes of the US mortgage crisis, almost a
decade after the crisis began. The paper summarizes the key forces that led to the crisis or …

Has public policy shaped the persistence of residential segregation by race over time?
Social Structures of Accumulation (SSA) theory, which explains major shifts in policy …

Governments throughout the world intervene heavily in housing markets, and most have
multiple policies to pursue multiple goals. This chapter deals with two of the largest types of …

This research explores whether banks strategically leverage regulatory rules for the
Community Reinvestment Act that fix a neighborhood's eligibility status over a decade based …

This study provides new evidence on the impact of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)
on mortgage lending by taking advantage of an exogenous policy shock in 2014, which …

We provide novel evidence of misaligned incentives fueling a portion of the 2000s mortgage
boom. We document that private mortgage insurance (PMI) companies expanded insurance …

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two large government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) that
are at the center of US residential mortgage finance, are “elephants in the room” that are …