@article{d8eb4415d4db4f47ada31a634d9bffc6,
title = "Did technology contribute to the housing boom? Evidence from MERS",
abstract = "We examine the effects of the Mortgage Electronic Registration System, or MERS, on mortgage origination volumes and foreclosure rates prior to the Great Recession. MERS was introduced in the late 1990s and significantly reduced the cost and time associated with secondary mortgage sales. Using novel data from the Massachusetts Registry of Deeds, we show that the introduction of MERS led to an expansion in mortgage credit supply that was primarily fueled by nonbank lenders originating mortgages to low-income borrowers. We also find that foreclosure rates were higher on these mortgages. Our paper provides a new explanation for the credit supply increases observed prior to the 2008 financial crisis and for the disproportionate supply increase observed in low-income areas.",
author = "Stefan Lewellen and Emily Williams",
note = "Funding Information: We thank the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for sharing its data. Daniel Neagu provided outstanding research assistance. We also thank the editor, Toni Whited, an anonymous referee, Brent Ambrose, Matt Baron, John Barrios, Utpal Bhattacharya, Patrick Clapp, Lauren Cohen, Jess Cornaggia, Kimberly Cornaggia, Josh Coval, Marco Di Maggio, Mark Egan, Daniel Green, Matt Gustafson, David Haushalter, Richard Howe, Peter Iliev, Victoria Ivashina, Amir Kermani, Anya Kleymenova, Ralph Koijen, Sanket Korgaonkar, Atif Mian, Abhiroop Mukherjee, Justin Murfin, Maureen O'Hara, Amit Seru, Amir Sufi, Adi Sunderam, Margarita Tsoutsoura, Boris Vallee, Emil Verner, James Vickery, Annette Vissing-Jorgensen, seminar participants at Cornell, Harvard Business School, HKUST, and Penn State, and participants at the 2018 Early Career Women in Finance Conference, the 2018 LBS Summer Symposium Early Ideas Session, the 2018 Chicago Booth Institute for Global Markets – Stigler Center Conference on the 10th Anniversary of the Financial Crisis, and the 2019 New Frontiers in Banking Conference for helpful comments. Part of this research was conducted while Lewellen was an employee of London Business School and Carnegie Mellon University. Williams thanks the HBS Division of Research and the HBS Data Services Group for funding and research support. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021",
year = "2021",
month = sep,
doi = "10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.04.002",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "141",
pages = "1244--1261",
journal = "Journal of Financial Economics",
issn = "0304-405X",
publisher = "Elsevier B.V.",
number = "3",
}