Title: Welfare implications of the transition to high household debt
Description: "Aggressive deregulation of the mortgage market in the early 1980s triggered innovations that greatly reduced the required home equity of U.S.  households.  This allowed households to cash-out a large part of accumulated equity, which equaled 71 percent of GDP in 1982.  A borrowing surge followed: Household debt increased from 43 to 62 percent of GDP in the 1982- 2000 period.  What are the welfare implications of such a reform for borrowers and savers? This paper uses a calibrated general equilibrium model of lending from the wealthy to the middle class to evaluate these effects quantitatively"--Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago web site.