to a situation akin to payment shock for borrowers. it is a common practice for these payments to be escrowed in the prime markets, and i see no reason that escrows should not be standard practice in the subprime markets too. all told, the spirit of innovation is essential to addressing the issue that is before us now as lenders, investors, regulators, community leaders, and borrowers. as stakeholders and beneficiaries of the mortgage market, we all share an interest in working together to implement solutions that maintain a robust, transparent credit environment that promotes access to responsible mortgage lending.

a broad array of independent academic research aimed at adding to the general knowledge and understanding of the economy. each year, fed staff members publish hundreds of papers and others forms of research, sometimes in collaboration with scholars from universities and other institutions, all of it available for use by the research community and on view to the public. conferences play an integral role in promoting the federal reserve ’ s research mission as well. this biennial community development research conference, organized by community development officials from across the federal reserve system, serves to encourage high - quality research see pew research center ( 2014 ), “ emerging and developing economies much more optimistic than rich countries about the future ( pdf ) “ ( washington : prc, october ). see ben s. bernanke ( 2007 ), “ the level and distribution of economic well - being, ” speech delivered at the greater omaha chamber of commerce, omaha, neb., february 6. see janet l. yellen ( 2014 ), “ perspectives on inequality and opportunity from the survey of consumer finances, ” speech delivered at the conference on economic opportunity and inequality, sponsored by the federal reserve bank of boston, boston, mass., october 17. bis central bankers ’ speeches and also helps bridge the gap between community development research, policy, and practice. in my brief remarks, i would like to mention a few aspects of economic mobility that i think are particularly important and worthy of further research, with the hope of stimulating the conversation that will take place here over the next couple of days. this conference will explore economic mobility as it is influenced by or affects families, communities, and the economy, so let me touch on each of those three facets. we know that families are the locus of both opportunities and barriers to economic mobility. there are important research questions to be tackled here. what individual or family characteristics may predict who will achieve upward mobility? how much does someone ’ s initial circumstances in life influence how far that person can get or how hard he or she needs to work to get there? researchers and policymakers need a better understanding of how much mobility individuals may experience over the course of their lives and at what age people ’ s outcomes may become more difficult to change. families are the source of many of the resources and experiences that influence economic mobility, and more research can help us understand to what extent and in which ways differences in the economic circumstances of families affect the upward mobility and economic security of offspring. research may be able to provide evidence on which public policies are