Essays in macroeconomics and finance
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In this dissertation I examine a number of financial and macroeconomic aspects of U.S. housing and mortgage markets. In the first chapter I analyze the importance of asymmetric information between mortgage lenders in explaining mortgage lending outcomes. I show that mortgage lenders that are owned by large property developers have superior information about the relative construction quality of ex-ante observationally similar homes within the same development, and that they exploit this information in the competition with other, less-informed mortgage lenders. As a result the collateral portfolio of those integrated lenders is of above-average quality. To compensate for the winner's curse in the presence of an integrated lender, less-informed lenders charge higher interest rates in developments with an integrated lender. In the second chapter I analyze government interventions in the housing market on prices, quantities and aggregate and distributional welfare using an overlapping-generations heterogeneous-agent general-equilibrium model calibrated to the U.S. economy. I consider (i) the introduction of temporary home purchase tax credits and (ii) a removal of the asymmetric tax treatment of owner-occupied and rental housing. Home buyer tax credits temporarily raise house prices and transaction volumes, but have negative welfare effects. Removing the asymmetric tax treatment of owner-occupied and rental housing generates welfare gains for a majority of agents in a comparison of stationary equilibria. Welfare impacts are more varied, though still positive, along the transition between steady states. In the third chapter I analyze the Federal Reserve's mortgage-backed securities (MBS) purchase program, the largest credit easing program established by the Fed during the financial crisis. I examine the quantitative impact of this program on mortgage interest rate spreads. This is more difficult than frequently perceived because of simultaneous changes in prepayment risk and default risk. The empirical results attribute a sizeable portion of the decline in mortgage rates to such risks and a relatively small and uncertain portion to the program.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Stroebel, Johannes Christopher |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Economics |
| Primary advisor | Taylor, John |
| Thesis advisor | Taylor, John |
| Thesis advisor | Hoxby, Caroline Minter |
| Thesis advisor | Piazzesi, Monika |
| Thesis advisor | Schneider, Klaus |
| Advisor | Hoxby, Caroline Minter |
| Advisor | Piazzesi, Monika |
| Advisor | Schneider, Klaus |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Johannes Stroebel. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Economics. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2012. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Johannes Christopher Stroebel
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