Although the United States has developed highly sophisticated markets for funding corporate investment projects, markets for financing home ownership are comparatively rudimentary. When a corporation wishes to fund a project, it can choose any mix of debt and equity financing. In contrast, to...

In the current structure of the U.S. residential mortgage market, a fall in property values may make it very difficult for homeowners to refinance their mortgages to take advantage of falling interest rates. In this paper, we explain the institutional background for this effect and quantify its...

In the current structure of the U.S. residential mortgage market, a decrease in property values may make it very difficult for homeowners to refinance their mortgages to take advantage of declining interest rates. In this paper, the authors show that this form of collateral constraint has...

We produce first results on the sustainability of homeownership for recent (2007-2009) FHA-insured borrowers. More than 15 percent of these borrowers have already been 90 days or more delinquent, while less than 7 percent have completed their graduation to sustainable homeownership by finally...

Federal Housing Administration (FHA) insurance has doubled over the past two years and is projected to redouble to $1.5 trillion over the next five. Despite clear signs of strain in the FHA's Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund, a recent actuarial review indicates that the FHA will not need any form...

China has emerged as an economic powerhouse (projected to have the largest economy in the world in a little over a decade) and is taking an ever-increasing role on the world stage. China's Rise: Challenges and Opportunities will help the United States and the rest of the world better comprehend...

The global economic crisis has made clear China's importance and expanding role on the world stage. China's Rise: Challenges and Opportunities, explains actions both China and the United States can take that will not only maximize the opportunities for China's constructive integration into the...

This paper provides an empirical investigation into the relationship between ex ante U.S. labor contract durations and uncertainty over the period 1970 to 1995. We construct measures of inflation uncertainty as well as aggregate nominal and real uncertainty. The results not only corroborate...

Herbert Scarf has recently introduced an algorithm for integer programs based on the concept of primitive sets. We show that as the choice variables become continuous, this algorithm converges to a dual simplex algorithm. This result is robust in the sense that even before the limit is reached,...