We quantify the extent to which buyers received false information about the true quality of assets in contractual disclosures by intermediaries during the sale of mortgages in the $2 trillion nonagency market. We construct two measures of misrepresentation of asset quality misreported occupancy status of the borrower and misreported second liens by comparing the characteristics of mortgages disclosed to the investors at the time of sale with actual characteristics of these loans at that time that are available in a dataset matched by a credit bureau. About one out of every ten loans has one of these misrepresentations.
Document Download | Download |
Document Type | General |
Publish Date | 12/09/2013 |
Author | |
Published By | University of Chicago and NBER |
Edited By | Saba Bilquis |