We propose a quantitative theory of wealth creation and distribution during China's transitional growth from the early 1990s, when barriers to setting up private businesses, trading housing, and migrating from rural to urban areas are struck down. In response to the changing economic...

We propose a quantitative theory of wealth creation and distribution during China's transitional growth from the early 1990s, when barriers to setting up private businesses, trading housing, and migrating from rural to urban areas are struck down. In response to the changing economic...

Residential investment before the mid 1980s was very volatile and since then it has been much less volatile. Before the 1980s mortgage markets were highly regulated and mortgage opportunities were limited, while large numbers of baby-boom households were acquiring their first house. Since 1980...

We study the role of residential housing in financing capital investment in a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium framework. Residential housing, though nonproductive, is shown to be important in determining the cost of external financing for investment on productive capital. Housing stock...

In this paper, we construct the first constant-quality aggregate price index for the stock of residential land in the United States. In the process, we uncover four main results: (a) since 1970, residential land prices have risen nearly twice as fast, but also have been twice as volatile as...

If borrowing capacity of indebted households is tied to the value of their home, house prices should enter a correctly specified aggregate Euler equation for consumption. I develop a simple two-agent, dynamic general equilibrium model in which home (collateral) values affect debt capacity and...

This paper deals with the macroeconomic effects of government guarantees on debt issued by Government-Sponsored Enterprises. We set up an economy with a housing and mortgage market where the government provides banks with insurance against aggregate shocks to mortgage default risk. We then study...