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Briefing
The Impact of Higher Temperatures on Economic Growth
What happens to the economy when it gets hot outside? Despite long-standing assumptions that economic damage from rising global temperatures would be limited to the agricultural sector or developing economies, this Economic Brief presents evidence that higher summer temperatures hurt a variety of business sectors in the United States
Working Paper
Financial Conditions and Capital Investment Choices
We show, both theoretically and empirically, that tight financial conditions shift investment toward cheaper but less energy-efficient capital. In a small open-economy model with vintage capital, higher financing costs reduce the present value of future energy savings, tilting firms’ choices along a cost efficiency frontier. Using 150 years of macroeconomic and energy data from 17 advanced economies, we find that tighter financial conditions reduce output, capital, and total energy consumption, but raise the amount of energy per unit of capital (energy intensity), a composition effect that ...
Working Paper
Extreme Weather and the Macroeconomy
Working Paper
Asset Bubbles and Global Imbalances
We analyze the relationships between bubbles, capital flows, and economic activities in a rational bubble model with two large open economies. We establish a reinforcing relationship between global imbalances and bubbles. Capital flows from South to North facilitate the emergence and the size of bubbles in the North. Bubbles in the North in turn facilitate South-to-North capital flows. The model can simultaneously explain several stylized features of recent bubble episodes.
Working Paper
Asset Pledgeability and Endogenously Leveraged Bubbles
We develop a simple model of defaultable debt and rational bubbles in the price of an asset, which can be pledged as collateral in a competitive credit pool. When the asset pledgeability is low, the down payment is high, and bubble investment is unleveraged, as in a standard rational bubble model. When the pledgeability is high, the down payment is low, making it easier for leveraged borrowers to invest in the bubbly asset. As loans are packaged together into a competitive pool, the pricing of individual default risk may facilitate risk-taking. In equilibrium, credit-constrained borrowers may ...
Briefing
Assessing GSE Mortgage Portfolios’ Exposure to Past and Future Flood Risk
This article evaluates the exposure of government-sponsored enterprises' (GSEs) mortgage portfolios to flood risks as projected by the First Street Foundation and analyzes the realized impact of Hurricane Irma on mortgage defaults. The analysis leverages extensive GSE data spanning from 1999 to 2023 and utilizes risk projections through 2050 to provide a comprehensive view of both potential future risks and actual past outcomes.
Briefing
Are Some Homebuyers Strategically Transferring Climate Risks to Lenders?
Recent empirical research suggests that certain homebuyers may be strategically transferring climate risks to banks via the mortgage market, and banks may be transferring such risks to government-sponsored enterprises via securitization. The evidence highlights the nuanced ways in which participants in the financial markets strategically adapt to climate change.
Working Paper
Race and Environmental Worries
Working Paper
Debt Limits and Credit Bubbles in General Equilibrium
We provide a novel characterization of self-enforcing debt limits in a general equilibrium framework of risk sharing with limited commitment, where defaulters are subject to recourse (a fractional loss of current and future endowments) and exclusion from future credit. We show that debt limits are exactly equal to the present value of recourse plus a credit bubble component. We provide applications to models of sovereign debt, private collateralized debt, and domestic public debt. Implications include an original equivalence mapping among distinct institutional arrangements, thereby ...