Essays in real estate and finance

Abstract

This dissertation consists of three chapters on topics related to real estate and finance. The first chapter studies the effects of bank competition on bank risk-taking and lending. Using a quasi-experimental design that exploits the exogenous application of bank antitrust laws following bank mergers, I show that bank competition leads to more loans going to larger and safer borrowers. The second chapter shows that housing demand shocks from 2000-2006 are highly correlated the elasticity of housing supply in different regions, and explores the implications of this for research on the effects of housing prices. The third chapter, written with Gregory Howard, proposes a new channel for changes in aggregate housing prices. We show empirically and theoretically that increased demand for housing in inelastic areas led to higher aggregate housing prices from 2000-2006, and quantify the magnitude of this channel.