Micro studies of macroprudential policies using loan-level data

Abstract

After the Great Recession of 2008-2009, macroprudential tools such as regulating indebtedness of households and riskiness of financial institutions have been implemented more actively. However, there is limited literature that investigates the effect of such policies on the behavior of households or financial institutions at the micro level. Thanks to unique micro data on households or financial institutions and the possibility to carry out some quasi-experiments, this thesis reveals causality and investigates unobserved channels which lead to visible outcomes at the micro level. The present thesis consists of two parts: one study on the increase in mortgage investments of pension funds by the new Financial Assessment Framework (Chapter 2) and the other on moral hazard behavior of households (strategic divorce in Chapter 3, lower prepayments in Chapter 4) caused by an insurance against negative home equity.