Federal Reserve: FEDS Notes | The Unequal Distribution of Economic Education
The Unequal Distribution of Economic Education: A Report on the Race, Ethnicity, and Gender of Economics Majors at US Colleges and Universities Amanda Bayer and David Wilcox Abstract: The distribution of economic education among US college graduates is quite unequal: female and underrepresented minority undergraduates, collectively, major in economics at 0.36 the rate that white,…
Federal Reserve: Speech | Financial Innovation: A World in Transition
We live in a world defined by the rapid pace of technological change. Four of the five largest U.S. companies by market capitalization are classified as “technology companies,” where the term describes the products that these companies sell and how they operate. Thanks to decades of investment in information technology, especially in electronic communication networks,…
Joint Release: Designated Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Key Data Fields
From Federal Reserve Board release: The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) have revised the list of Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) key data fields that their respective examiners will use in connection with validating the accuracy…
Joint Release: Agencies Issue Temporary Exceptions to Appraisal Requirements in Areas Affected by Recent Hurricanes
Responding to widespread damage caused by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, four federal financial institution regulatory agencies today took action to facilitate the recovery process by temporarily easing appraisal requirements for real estate-related financial transactions in areas declared to be a major disaster. The agencies will not require financial institutions to obtain appraisals for affected…
Federal Reserve: FEDS Notes | Natural Disasters and the Measurement of Industrial Production: Hurricane Harvey, a Case Study
Kimberly Bayard, Ryan Decker, and Charles Gilbert The Federal Reserve’s G.17 release on industrial production (IP) and capacity utilization published on September 15, 2017, included one of the first estimates of the impact on a specific measure of economic activity by Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall in Texas on August 25. As reported in the…
Federal Reserve: FEDS Notes | The Decline In Lending To Lower-Income Borrowers By The Biggest Banks
Neil Bhutta, Steven Laufer, and Daniel R. Ringo1 Data collected under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) reveal that the largest banks have significantly reduced their share of mortgage lending to low- and moderate-income (LMI) households in recent years. We present evidence suggesting that this reduction is explained in part by a decrease in the…
Federal Reserve: Residential Mortgage Lending In 2016 – Evidence From The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act Data
Neil Bhutta, Steven Laufer, and Daniel R. Ringo This article provides an overview of the 2016 data reported under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 and analyzes mortgage market activity over time as well as lending patterns across different demographic groups and lender types. The number of home-purchase originations was about 10 percent higher…
Federal Reserve: FEDS Notes | Are Rising Home Values Restraining Homebuying For Lower-Income Families?
Neil Bhutta, Steven Laufer, and Daniel R. Ringo1 Since bottoming out in 2012, house prices in the U.S. have been recovering rapidly. According to Zillow, the median home value has been growing about 6 percent per year. While incomes have also been recovering, they have not quite kept pace with home prices. The median household…
Federal Reserve: Changes In U.S. Family Finances from 2013 to 2016 – Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances
The Federal Reserve Board’s Survey of Consumer Finances for 2016 provides insights into the evolution of family income and net worth since the previous time the survey was conducted, in 2013. The survey shows that, over the 2013-16 period, the median value of real (inflation-adjusted) family income before taxes rose 10 percent, and mean income…