Three essays on household finance
By: by Alexander Calen Aberlin Kaufman
Series: Collections of the Harvard University Archives
Published: 2010
Language: eng
Number of pages: 156
Description: This dissertation presents three essays on household finance. All three focus on contemporary U.S. consumer credit markets, with particular attention paid to how market organization and firm incentives mediate the way firms interact with customers and the types of contracts they offer. The first essay examines the question of whether securitization was responsible for poor underwriting standards during the recent mortgage crisis. The second essay attempts to quantify the effect of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's intervention in the conforming mortgage market on equilibrium outcomes such as price and contract structure. The third essay investigates how mutual ownership of a firm by its customers can limit that firm's incentive to offer contracts meant to take advantage of customers' behavioral biases.
Notes: "May 2010."

Thesis (Ph.D., Dept. of Economics)--Harvard University, 2010.

Includes bibliographical references.