Credit Rationing in the U.S. Mortgage Market: Evidence from Variation in FHA Market Shares

This paper examines the nature of mortgage credit rationing across geographic markets and time. Particular attention is paid to the response of conventional mortgage supply to higher risk conditions associated with regional recessions. We develop a series of four indirect tests based on the spatial variation of the FHA share of mortgages, both endorsements and applications, as well as FHA and conventional rejection rates. Results of these four tests indicate that conventional mortgage underwriting criteria do not become more flexible and may even become more demanding when local economic conditions deteriorate. This result indicates the use of non-price credit rationing in the mortgage market and suggests a special role for FHA-insured mortgages as a mechanism for maintaining mortgage credit supply in declining housing markets

Research and education in management of large- scale technical programs Semiannual progress report

Research and education in management of large scale technical programs - education and integration of interdisciplinary tea

Technology and management of large-scale programs Semiannual progress report

Technology and management of large scale program

Human activity was a major driver of the mid-Holocene vegetation change in southern Cumbria: Implications for the elm decline in the British Isles

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.The dramatic decline in elm (Ulmus) across a large swathe of north-west Europe in the mid-Holocene has been ascribed to a number of possible factors, including climate change, human activity and/or pathogens. A major limitation for identifying the underlying cause(s) has been the limited number of high-resolution records with robust geochronological frameworks. Here, we report a multiproxy study of an upland (Blea Tarn) and lowland (Urswick Tarn) landscape in southern Cumbria (British Isles) to reconstruct vegetation change across the elm decline in an area with a rich and well-dated archaeological record to disentangle different possible controls. Here we find a two-stage decline in Ulmus taking place between 6350–6150 and 6050–5850 cal a BP, with the second phase coinciding with an intensification of human activity. The scale of the decline and associated human impact is more abrupt in the upland landscape. We consider it likely that a combination of human impact and disease drove the Ulmus decline within southern Cumbria.This work was funded by a studentship for MJG from the University of Exeter and Sir John Fisher Foundation. Additional funding for 14C dating was from the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological Society (Clare Fell Bursary to MJG), and the Australian Research Council (FL100100195)

State and Local Anti-Predatory Lending Laws: The Effect of Legal Enforcement Mechanisms

Subprime mortgage lending has grown rapidly in recent years and with it, so have concerns about predatory lending. In response to evidence of predatory lending, most states have enacted new laws or expanded existing laws to address abuses in the subprime home loan market. The effect of these statutes is a matter of debate. This paper seeks to improve the understanding of this increasingly important issue and pays particular attention to the role that legal enforcement mechanisms play in this context. The results of the analysis are consistent with the view that anti-predatory lending laws influence subprime lending markets and that disaggregating the details of the overall legal framework into its component parts is essential for understanding subprime market dynamics. The restrictions, coverage, and enforcement components all have significant relationships with subprime market outcomes, with the coverage relationship found to be broadly consistent with the reverse lemons hypothesis put forward by Ho and Pennington-Cross (2007). The results also suggest that the newer mini-HOEPA laws have had an impact on the subprime market above and beyond the older preexisting laws, particularly for subprime originations. Broader coverage through these new laws is associated with higher origination likelihoods, while increased restrictions through the mini-HOEPA laws are associated with lower origination propensities

The Impact of State Anti-Predatory Lending Laws: Policy Implications and Insights

The subprime mortgage market, which consists of high-cost loans designed for borrowers with weak credit, has grown tremendously over the past ten years. Between 1993 and 2005, the subprime market experienced an average annual growth rate of 26 percent. As this market emerged, so did allegations that subprime loans contained predatory features or were the result of predatory sales practices.3 In the worst cases, brokers deceived borrowers about the meaning of loan terms or falsely promised to assist them in obtaining future refinance loans with better terms. In other situations, borrowers entered into loans with low teaser rates, not aware how high their monthly payments could go when their interest rates reset

Location, correlation, radiation: where is the σ\sigma, what is its structure and what is its coupling to photons?

Scalar mesons are a key expression of the infrared regime of QCD. The lightest of these is the $\sigma$. Now that its pole in the complex energy plane has been precisely located, we can ask whether this state is transiently ${\bar q}q$ or ${\bar {qq}} qq$ or a multi-meson molecule or largely glue? The two photon decay of the $\sigma$ can, in principle, discriminate between these possibilities. We review here how the $\gamma\gamma\to\pi^+\pi^-$, $\pi^0\pi^0$ cross-sections can be accurately computed. The result not only agrees with experiment, but definitively fixes the radiative coupling of the $\sigma$. This equates to a two photon width of $(4.1 \pm 0.3)$ keV, which accords with the simple non-relativistic quark model expectation for a ${\bar u}u, {\bar d}d$ scalar. Nevertheless, robust predictions from relativistic strong coupling QCD are required for each of the possible compositions before we can be sure which one really delivers the determined $\gamma\gamma$ coupling.Comment: 18 pages, 11 figures. To be published in Modern Physics Letters A A number of references updated and three sentences changed in the text to reflect thes

The dispersive contribution of ρ(1450,1700)\rho(1450,1700) decays and X(1576)

We study whether the broad enhancement X(1576) arises from the final state interaction (FSI) of $\rho(1450,1700)\to \rho^+\rho^-\to K^{+}K^{-}$ decays. We consider both the absorptive and dispersive contribution of the above amplitudes since the intermediate states are very close to $\rho(1450,1700)$. The same mechanism leads to a similar enhancement around 1580 MeV in the $\pi^{+}\pi^-$ spectrum in the $J/\psi\to \pi^{0}\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ channel, which can be used to test whether X(1576) can be ascribed to the FSI effect of $\rho(1450,1700)\to \rho^+\rho^-$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Research and education in management of large-scale technical programs

A research effort is reported which was conducted by NASA in conjunction with Drexel University, and which was aimed at an improved understanding of large scale systems technology and management