Search Results
Journal Article
Job Loss Consequences and the Pandemic Recession
Workers displaced during the pandemic recession experienced better subsequent earnings and employment outcomes than workers displaced during previous recessions. A sharp recovery in aggregate labor market conditions after the pandemic recession accounts for these better outcomes. The industry and occupation composition of displaced workers, the prevalence of worker recalls, and the uptake of unemployment insurance benefits are unlikely explanations.
Journal Article
Mortgage Borrowers’ Use of COVID-19 Forbearance Programs
The guarantee of mortgage forbearance provided in the CARES Act is an unprecedented provision of flexibility for government-insured mortgage borrowers and has been successful thus far at limiting delinquencies during the COVID-19 pandemic. The terms of this forbearance are favorable to borrowers, and there is little required in terms of documentation of hardship, making requesting forbearance an attractive option even if borrowers are not facing hardship and do not need forbearance to remain current on a mortgage. Despite this, evidence indicates that so far CARES Act forbearance has largely ...
Report
Intermediation Frictions in Debt Relief: Evidence from CARES Act Forbearance
We study how intermediaries—mortgage servicers—shaped the implementation of mortgage forbearance during the COVID-19 pandemic and use servicer-level variation to trace out the causal effect of forbearance on borrowers. Forbearance provision varied widely across servicers. Small servicers and nonbanks, especially nonbanks with small liquidity buffers, facilitated fewer forbearances and saw a higher incidence of forbearance-related complaints. Easier access to forbearance substantially increased mortgage nonpayment but also reduced delinquencies outside of forbearance. Part of the liquidity ...
Briefing
How Did Pandemic UI Benefits Affect Employment Recovery in Local Industry Markets?
We analyze the employment recovery of low-wage establishments relative to the employment recovery of high-wage establishments within local labor markets, and we find a slower recovery in low-wage establishments. We associate the difference with the expanded generosity of pandemic unemployment insurance (UI) supplements, which have a larger negative effect on the job-filling rate of low-paying establishments. We use a model of labor search to translate our establishment-level observations into a disincentive effect of pandemic UI benefits at the worker level.