Unintended Consequences of the Home Affordable Refinance Program Staff working paper 2024-11 Phoebe Tian, Chen Zheng We investigate the unintended consequences of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). Originally designed to help borrowers refinance after the 2008–09 global financial crisis, HARP inadvertently strengthened the market power of incumbent lenders by creating a cost advantage for them. Despite a 2013 policy rectifying this cost advantage, we still find significant welfare losses for borrowers. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): G, G2, G21, G5, G51, L, L5, L51 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Financial stability and systemic risk, Household and business credit
Competition for Exclusivity and Customer Lock-in: Evidence from Copyright Enforcement in China Staff working paper 2023-43 Youming Liu This paper studies the music streaming industry and argues that having exclusive rights granted by copyright law drives firms to offer exclusive content to lock in customers. I employ theoretical and descriptive empirical analysis, along with a dynamic structural model, to support the argument and explore policies for improving competition. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): L, L1, L13, L4, L42, L5, L51 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market structure, Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods, Structural challenges, Digitalization and productivity
Addictive Platforms Staff working paper 2022-16 Shota Ichihashi, Byung-Cheol Kim We study competition for consumer attention, in which platforms can sacrifice service quality for attention. A platform can choose the “addictiveness” of its service. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): D, D4, D40, L, L5, L51 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Market structure, Structural challenges, Digitalization and productivity
Flight from Safety: How a Change to the Deposit Insurance Limit Affects Households’ Portfolio Allocation Staff working paper 2019-29 H. Evren Damar, Reint Gropp, Adi Mordel Deposit insurance protects depositors from failing banks, thus making insured deposits risk-free. When a deposit insurance limit is increased, some deposits that previously were uninsured become insured, thereby increasing the share of risk-free assets in households’ portfolios. This increase cannot simply be undone by households, because to invest in uninsured deposits, a household must first invest in insured deposits up to the limit. This basic insight is the starting point of the analysis in this paper. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): D, D1, D14, G, G2, G21, G28, L, L5, L51 Research Theme(s): Financial system, Financial system regulation and oversight, Household and business credit