Moral Hazard, Adverse Selection, and Mortgage Markets

Moral Hazard, Adverse Selection, and Mortgage Markets
Author: Barney Paul Hartman-Glaser
Publisher:
Total Pages: 206
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

This dissertation considers problems of adverse selection and moral hazard in secondary mortgage markets. Chapters 2 and 3 consider moral hazard and adverse selection respectively. While Chapter 4 investigates the predictions of the model presented in Chapter 2 using data from the commercial mortgage backed securities market. Chapter 2 derives the optimal design of mortgage backed securities (MBS) in a dynamic setting with moral hazard. A mortgage underwriter with limited liability can engage in costly e0ffort to screen for low risk borrowers and can sell loans to a secondary market. Secondary market investors cannot observe the e0ffort of the mortgage underwriter, but they can make their payments to the underwriter conditional on the mortgage defaults. The optimal contract between the underwriter and the investors involves a single payment to the underwriter after a waiting period. Unlike static models that focus on underwriter retention as a means of providing incentives, the model shows that the timing of payments to the underwriter is the key incentive mechanism. Moreover, the maturity of the optimal contract can be short even though the mortgages are long-lived. The model also gives a new reason for mortgage pooling: selling pooled mortgages is more e0fficient than selling mortgages individually because pooling allows investors to learn about underwriter e0ffort more quickly, an information enhancement e0ffect. The model also allows an evaluation of standard contracts and shows that the "0first loss piece" is a very close approximation to the optimal contract. Chapter 3 considers a repeated security issuance game with reputation concerns. Each period, an issuer can choose to securitize an asset and publicly report its quality. However, potential investors cannot directly observe the quality of the asset and a lemons problem ensues. The issuer can credibly signal the asset's quality by retaining a portion of the asset. Incomplete information about issuer type induces reputation concerns which provide credibility to the issuer's report of asset quality. A mixed strategy equilibrium obtains with the following 3 properties: (i) the issuer misreports asset quality at least part of the time, (ii) perceived asset quality is a U-shaped function of the issuer's reputation, and (iii) the issuer retains less of the asset when she has a higher reputation. Chapter 4 documents empirical evidence that subordination levels for commercial mortgage backed securities (CMBS) depend on issuer reputation in a manner consistent with the model of Chapter 3. Speci0fically, issuer retention is negatively correlated with issuer reputation. New measures for both issuer reputation and retention are considered.

Optimal Securitization with Moral Hazard

Optimal Securitization with Moral Hazard
Author: Barney Hartman-Glaser
Publisher:
Total Pages: 46
Release: 2011
Genre:
ISBN:

This paper considers the optimal design of mortgage backed securities (MBS) in a dynamic setting with moral hazard. A mortgage underwriter with limited liability can engage in costly effort to screen for low risk borrowers and can sell loans to a secondary market. Secondary market investors cannot observe the effort of the mortgage underwriter, but they can make their payments to the underwriter conditional on the mortgage defaults. We find the optimal contract between the underwriter and the investors involves a single payment to the underwriter after a waiting period. The dynamic setting of our model admits three new findings. First, unlike static models that focus on underwriter retention as a means of providing incentives, our model shows that the timing of payments to the underwriter is the key incentive mechanism. Second, the maturity of the optimal contract can be short even though the mortgages are long-lived. Third, selling pooled mortgages is more efficient than selling mortgages individually because pooling allows investors to learn about the underwriter's effort more quickly, an information enhancement effect. Our model also allows an evaluation of standard contracts and shows that the ldquo;first loss piecerdquo; is a very close approximation to the optimal contract.

Moral Hazard in Health Insurance

Moral Hazard in Health Insurance
Author: Amy Finkelstein
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2014-12-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0231538685

Addressing the challenge of covering heath care expenses—while minimizing economic risks. Moral hazard—the tendency to change behavior when the cost of that behavior will be borne by others—is a particularly tricky question when considering health care. Kenneth J. Arrow’s seminal 1963 paper on this topic (included in this volume) was one of the first to explore the implication of moral hazard for health care, and Amy Finkelstein—recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on the topic—here examines this issue in the context of contemporary American health care policy. Drawing on research from both the original RAND Health Insurance Experiment and her own research, including a 2008 Health Insurance Experiment in Oregon, Finkelstein presents compelling evidence that health insurance does indeed affect medical spending and encourages policy solutions that acknowledge and account for this. The volume also features commentaries and insights from other renowned economists, including an introduction by Joseph P. Newhouse that provides context for the discussion, a commentary from Jonathan Gruber that considers provider-side moral hazard, and reflections from Joseph E. Stiglitz and Kenneth J. Arrow. “Reads like a fireside chat among a group of distinguished, articulate health economists.” —Choice

Complex Mortgages (CM)

Complex Mortgages (CM)
Author: Gene Amromin
Publisher: DIANE Publishing
Total Pages: 57
Release: 2011
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1437987850

CM became a popular borrowing instrument during the bullish housing market of the early 2000s but vanished rapidly during the subsequent downturn. These non-traditional loans (interest only, negative amortization, and teaser mortgages) enable households to postpone loan repayment compared to traditional mortgages and hence relax borrowing constraints. But, they increase household leverage and heighten dependence on mortgage refinancing. CM were chosen by prime borrowers with high income levels seeking to purchase expensive houses relative to their incomes. Borrowers with CM experience substantially higher ex post default rates than borrowers with traditional mortgages with similar characteristics. Illus. This is a print on demand report.

Ownership and Asymmetric Information Problems in the Corporate Loan Market

Ownership and Asymmetric Information Problems in the Corporate Loan Market
Author: Lewis Gaul
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2015-01-01
Genre:
ISBN: 9781505310306

In credit markets, asymmetric information problems arise when borrowers have private information about their creditworthiness that is not observable by lenders. If these informational asymmetries do not negatively affect lenders' profitability, then they are irrelevant to lenders.

The Theory of Corporate Finance

The Theory of Corporate Finance
Author: Jean Tirole
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 657
Release: 2010-08-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1400830222

"Magnificent."—The Economist From the Nobel Prize–winning economist, a groundbreaking and comprehensive account of corporate finance Recent decades have seen great theoretical and empirical advances in the field of corporate finance. Whereas once the subject addressed mainly the financing of corporations—equity, debt, and valuation—today it also embraces crucial issues of governance, liquidity, risk management, relationships between banks and corporations, and the macroeconomic impact of corporations. However, this progress has left in its wake a jumbled array of concepts and models that students are often hard put to make sense of. Here, one of the world's leading economists offers a lucid, unified, and comprehensive introduction to modern corporate finance theory. Jean Tirole builds his landmark book around a single model, using an incentive or contract theory approach. Filling a major gap in the field, The Theory of Corporate Finance is an indispensable resource for graduate and advanced undergraduate students as well as researchers of corporate finance, industrial organization, political economy, development, and macroeconomics. Tirole conveys the organizing principles that structure the analysis of today's key management and public policy issues, such as the reform of corporate governance and auditing; the role of private equity, financial markets, and takeovers; the efficient determination of leverage, dividends, liquidity, and risk management; and the design of managerial incentive packages. He weaves empirical studies into the book's theoretical analysis. And he places the corporation in its broader environment, both microeconomic and macroeconomic, and examines the two-way interaction between the corporate environment and institutions. Setting a new milestone in the field, The Theory of Corporate Finance will be the authoritative text for years to come.