Title:
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The macroeconomic effects of government asset purchases: evidence from postwar US housing credit
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Author:
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Fieldhouse, Andrew; Mertens, Karel; Ravn, Morten O.
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Abstract:
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We document the portfolio activity of federal housing agencies and provide evidence on its impact on mortgage markets and the economy. Through a narrative analysis, we identify historical policy changes leading to expansions or contractions in agency mortgage holdings. Based on those regulatory events that we classify as unrelated to short-run cyclical or credit market shocks, we find that an increase in mortgage purchases by the agencies boosts mortgage lending, in particular refinancing, and lowers mortgage rates. Agency purchases influence prices in other asset markets, stimulate residential investment and expand homeownership. Using information in GSE stock prices to construct an alternative instrument for agency purchasing activity yields
very similar results as our benchmark narrative identification approach. |
Abstract:
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The ADEMU Working Paper Series is being supported by the European Commission Horizon 2020 European Union funding for Research & Innovation, grant agreement No 649396. |
Subject(s):
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-Credit policy -Monetary policy -Mortgage credit -Residential investment -Government-Sponsored entreprises |
Rights:
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This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided that the original work is properlyattributed.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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Document type:
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Working Paper |
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