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Housing markets — a shelter from the storm or cause of the storm?

Bank of Finland/SUERF conference
4–5 June 2009
House of the Estates, Helsinki

  

 

Housing markets have been in the centre of the recent financial turmoil and its consequences for the real economy. Although the problems began in the United States, lessons need to be learned on both sides of the Atlantic. Housing wealth plays a major role in Europe, too, although experiences vary a great deal from country to country. The roots of the excessive housing market developments may lie in the incentive structures of institutions and the innovative instruments they have devised, as well as in public policies such as tax subsidies. Not least, there is the question of what role housing wealth and mortgages should play in macro models and central bank and regulatory policies. The conference is aimed at contributing to the ongoing discussion of these important issues.

Call for papers (PDF)

Programme

Thursday, 4 June

8:45–9:00 Registration
9.00–10:15 Welcome, Opening Address and Keynote Address I
  Chair Jouko Vilmunen, Head of Research, Bank of Finland
Welcome
Catherine Lubochinsky, SUERF President and Professor of Economics, Université Paris 2
Opening Address
Sinikka Salo, Member of the Board, Bank of Finland
9:30–10:15 Keynote Address I
 Central bank policy and asset prices
Loretta J. Mester, Senior Vice President and Director of Research, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia
10:15–11:00 Coffee break
11:00–12:30 Session 1: House prices and credit constraints
  Chair Iftekhar Hasan, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Bank of Finland and Journal of Financial Stability
  Paper
Presentation		 Credit constraints and house prices: making sense of the U.S. experience
Author(s) John V. Duca, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
John Muellbauer, Oxford University
*Anthony Murphy, Oxford University
Comments Peter Englund, Stockholm School of Economics
Paper
Presentation 		 On the importance of borrowing constraints for house price dynamics
  Author(s) *Essi Eerola, Government Institute for Economic Research
Niku Määttänen, The Research Institute of the Finnish Economy
  Comments Gerald Dwyer, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
12:30–14:00 Lunch
14:00–15:30 Session 2: Mortgage decisions
Chair Esa Jokivuolle, Bank of Finland and SUERF
Paper
Presentation 		 Where's the smoking gun? A study of underwriting standards for US subprime mortgages
  Author(s) Geetesh Bhardwaj, The Vanguard Group
*Rajdeep Sengupta, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
  Comments Rhiannon Sowerbutts, Universidad Pompeu Fabra
Paper
Presentation		 Do financial counseling mandates improve mortgage choice and performance? Evidence from a Legislative Experiment
  Author(s) Sumit Agarwal, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Gene Amromin, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
Itzhak Ben-David, Ohio State University
Souphala Chomsisengphet, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Douglas D. Evanoff, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago
  Comments Anthony Murphy
15:30–16:00 Coffee break
16:00–17:30 Panel session: Political economy of housing markets
  Chair
Presentation		 Professor Heikki Loikkanen, University of Helsinki
 
Presentation
Presentation
Presentation
Presentation		 Panelists:
Raymond Duch, Oxford University
Peter Englund, Stockholm School of Economics
Yannis Ioannides, Tufts University
Risto Murto, Varma Mutual Pension Insurance Company
17:30 End of first day's programme
19:00 Dinner at the Bank of Finland's Banqueting Hall

 

Friday, 5 June

9:00–10:30 Invited Speech and Session 3: House prices and housing loans
  Chair Juan Ayuso, Banco de España and SUERF
Invited Speech
Presentation		 The residential boom and its consequences: a view from a Spanish bank
Antonio Cortina, Deputy Head of Research, Banco Santander
  Paper
Presentation 		 The interaction between house prices and loans for house purchase. The Spanish case
  Author(s) Ricardo Gimeno, Banco de España
*Carmen Martínez Carrascal, Banco de España
  Comments Niku Määttänen
10:30–11:00 Coffee break
11:00–12:30 Session 4: Monetary policy and house prices
  Chair Antti Ripatti, Bank of Finland
  Paper
Presentation 		 Monetary policy and housing prices in an estimated DSGE for the US and the euro area
  Author(s) *Alessandro Notarpietro, Università Bocconi and Banca d'Italia
Matthieu Darracq Pariès, European Central Bank
  Comments Juha Kilponen, Bank of Finland
  Paper
Presentation 		 The housing price boom of the late nineties: did inflation targeting matter?
  Author(s) Sébastien Frappa, Banque de France
*Jean-Stéphane Mésonnier, Banque de France
  Comments Livio Stracca, European Central Bank
12:30–14:00 Lunch
14:00–15:30 Invited Speech and Keynote Address II
  Chair Jouko Vilmunen
14:00–14:45 Invited Speech
Presentation		 ECB structural issues report 2009: Housing finance in the Euro area
Guido Wolswijk, European Central Bank 
14:45–15:30 Keynote Address II Housing markets and the financial crisis of 2007–2008: lessons for the future
John V. Duca, Vice President and Senior Policy Advisor, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
15:30–15:40   Concluding remarks
Jouko Vilmunen
15:40 End of the conference
17:00 Informal cruise to the Bank of Finland's Villa with a dinner at destination