Securitization and the Fixed-Rate Mortgage

Fixed-rate mortgages (FRMs) dominate the U.S. mortgage market, with important consequences for household risk management, monetary policy, and systemic risk. In this paper, we show that securitization is a key driver of FRM supply. Our analysis compares the agency and nonagency mortgage-backed-securities (MBS) markets, exploiting the freeze in nonagency MBS liquidity in the third quarter of 2007. Using exogenous variation in access to the agency MBS market, we find that when both market segments are liquid they perform similarly in terms of supporting FRM supply. However, after the nonagency market freezes, the share of FRMs is sharply higher among mortgages eligible to be securitized through the still-liquid agency MBS market. Our interpretation is that securitization is particularly important for FRMs because of the prepayment and interest rate risk embedded in these loans. We highlight policy implications for ongoing reform of the U.S. mortgage finance system

Liquidity, Innovation, And Endogenous Growth

We study optimal liquidity management, innovation, and production decisions for a continuum of firms facing financing frictions and the threat of creative destruction. We show that financing constraints lead firms to decrease production but may spur investment in innovation (R&D). We characterize which firms should substitute production for innovation in the face of constraints and thus display a "gambling" type of behavior. We embed our firm dynamics into a model of endogenous growth and show that financing frictions have offsetting effects on economic growth

Fire Sale Bank Recapitalizations

status: accepte