March 15, 2017
Wednesday’s Academic Roundup
- This paper, ‘Monopoly’ in Real Life – The Housing Market and Inequality, uses a simple model based on the board game Monopoly to simulate the drivers of house prices and inequality. The starting capital, income per round (wage), rental income, rental costs and the timing of home ownership all matter for the evolution of house prices and inequality.
- This paper, Market Thickness and the Impact of Unemployment on Housing Market Outcomes, develops a search-matching model to study the impact of the unemployment rate on the housing market in the presence of the thick market effect. We estimate the structural model using Texas city-level data that covers three years, 1990, 2000 and 2010.
- This study, Nowhere to Go but Up: A Study of Listed Real Estate Sensitivity to Changes in Interest Rates, re-examines the sensitivity of global listed real estate markets to changes in market and Central Bank interest rates with respect to both their returns and volatility. Specifically the paper considers the recent period of relaxing monetary policies in the countries with the largest global listed real estate markets.
- In the wake of the financial crisis, mortgage lending to lower-income and minority borrowers overcorrected and has not recovered. This paper, Has the Mortgage Pendulum Swung Too Far? Reviving Access to Mortgage Credit, while homeownership is a riskier investment than previously realized, still it remains a proven path to increased wealth on balance for lower-income households.
