The alarming rise in drinking water pollution across the U.S. is often attributed to cost cutting pressures faced by local officials. We know little, however, about why these pressures are so severe for some cities compared to others. We present a new theory to argue that an important...

At various points in its history, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has had particularly large impacts on mortgage and housing markets in the U.S. During the early to middle 2000s, FHA lending dwindled to historically low shares of the mortgage market as subprime lending boomed, with some...