Housing - Macroeconomy, Financial Intermediation, and Monetary Policy: Theory and Empirical Evidence from U.S. and European Economies

• Applicant: Professor Gabriel Lee, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: Economic Theory ; Economic Policy, Applied Economics
• Term: from 2013 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 236861276

Recent economic events have dramatically underscored the important roles that housing and finance play in the business cycle. And while there has no doubt been a concomitant increase in economic research which examines housing markets and financial intermediation, only a few analyses have been conducted in a calibrated, general equilibrium setting; i.e. an economic environment in which the quantitative properties of the model are broadly consistent with observed business cycle characteristics. Our proposal is to remedy this deficiency by building on our previous research. The broad objective of this research project is to develop a theoretical and computational framework that can help us understand: [1] how does uncertainty in lending channel effect economies (including both financial and housing markets) at different stages of business cycle; [2] what are the effects associated with credit constrained heterogenous agents on the housing prices and the business cycle; and [3] what types monetary policies might help (or hinder) the process of housing and financial development.In particular, our plan is to merge the housing supply/banking sector model as developed in Dorofeenko, Lee, and Salyer (2012) with the model of housing demand presented in Iacoviello and Neri (2010) in order to examine how the factors of production uncertainty, financial intermediation, and credit constrained households can affect housing prices and aggregate economic activity. Moreover, this analysis is cast within a monetary framework which permits a study of how monetary policy can be used to mitigate the deleterious effects of cyclical phenomenon that originates in the housing sector

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Austria, USA
• Participating Persons: Privatdozent Victor Dorofeenko, Ph.D.; Professor Kevin Salyer, Ph.D.