TY  - JOUR
AU  - Mian,Atif
AU  - Sufi,Amir
AU  - Trebbi,Francesco
TI  - The Political Economy of the Subprime Mortgage Credit Expansion
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 16107
PY  - 2010
Y2  - June 2010
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16107
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w16107.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Atif R. Mian
Princeton University
Bendheim Center For Finance
26 Prospect Avenue
Princeton, NJ 08540
E-Mail: atif@princeton.edu

Amir Sufi
University of Chicago
Booth School of Business
5807 South Woodlawn Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
Tel: 773/702-6148
Fax: 773/702-0458
E-Mail: amir.sufi@chicagobooth.edu

Francesco Trebbi
University of British Columbia
1873 East Mall
Vancouver, BC, V6T1Z1
Canada
Tel: 604.218.5900
Fax: 604.822.5915
E-Mail: ftrebbi@mail.ubc.ca
M2  - featured in NBER digest on 2010-11-01
AB  - We examine how special interests, measured by campaign contributions from the mortgage industry, and constituent interests, measured by the share of subprime borrowers in a congressional district, may have influenced U.S. government policy toward the housing sector during the subprime mortgage credit expansion from 2002 to 2007. Beginning in 2002, mortgage industry campaign contributions increasingly targeted U.S. representatives from districts with a large fraction of subprime borrowers. During the expansion years, mortgage industry campaign contributions and the share of subprime borrowers in a congressional district increasingly predicted congressional voting behavior on housing related legislation. The evidence suggests that both subprime mortgage lenders and subprime mortgage borrowers influenced government policy toward housing finance during the subprime mortgage credit expansion.
ER  -