Homeownership Effects of Alternative Mortgage Instruments*

Most of the interest in alternatives to the standard mortgage instrument has centered on the ability of the alternatives to improve on the performance of the mortgage instrument over the business cycle. The focus in this paper is on the long-term effects on homeownership rates and associated additional residential construction. The instruments are found to offer potentially large increases in homeownership rates by reducing monthly mortgage payments. Widespread adoption of those instruments causing larger payment reductions would allow around one million more households to become owner-occupants. The demand for new single-family homes would increase over the long run by 3 to 4 percent a year. Homeownership could be further increased by a time-limited subsidy directed at moderate income families.     

Optimal dynamic behavior of a market maker in choosing bid and asked prices

Dynamic programming is used to describe a specialist's choice of bid and asked prices given uncertainty about both limit and market orders. The role of limit orders is emphasized. Optimal quotes depend on the composition of limit orders, the size of the specialist's position, and the time of day. The optimal bid-ask spread, however, depends only on the composition of the book. The capitalized value of the specialist's franchise is studied. Long-run probability distributions for bid and ask prices are obtained, which show that the variances of these prices increase as the end of the day approaches.     

What comes after the welfare state?: A post-welfare development path for the UK

One vision of post-industrial society projects a sane, humane, ecological future. Achievement of this requires societal transformation of almost unprecedented dimensions. This paper offers a preliminary exploration of how changing directions to this kind of future would affect social welfare and social services in the UK. Current community activities which may help accelerate change in local futures are outlined.     

Reserve-requirement changes,open-market operations,and banks' asset mix

Conclusion This paper has demonstrated, in terms of a characteristics-space model of banks' demand for earning assets, that banks' desired ratio of securities to loans willfall when deposits are restricted by means of a raised reserve requirement, butremain constant orrise when the restriction is due to open-market sales (assuming that the differential between loan and security rates of interest does not widen). It is then argued that open-market sales can be judged superior to raised reserve requirements as an instrument of monetary restriction according to at least six criteria. A necessary and sufficient condition for this judgement by each criterion is that banks' asset mix respond to deposit contraction in the manner predicted by our model.