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Full-Text Articles in Economics

Examining The Effects Of Student Loan Forgiveness And The Christian Perspective, Sarah Rogers May 2023

Examining The Effects Of Student Loan Forgiveness And The Christian Perspective, Sarah Rogers

Helm's School of Government Conference - American Revival: Citizenship & Virtue

On August 24, 2022, President Joe Biden announced his plan for federal student loan forgiveness. The program allows individuals who make less than $125,000 a year and families under $250,000 relieve up to $10,000 of their loan debt. Those who fall under the Pell Grant program are able to relieve up to $20,000 of their debt. The reactions to this “revolutionary” program were mixed. Typically, those who the program would directly affect were very enthusiastic about this idea while those, most notably Republicans, were less than thrilled. While the idea is good in theory, the execution of debt forgiveness will …


United States: Primary Dealer Credit Facility, Carey K. Mott Jul 2022

United States: Primary Dealer Credit Facility, Carey K. Mott

Journal of Financial Crises

In March 2020, the uncertain outlook for the United States in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic prompted extremely high demand for cash and near-cash assets. Amid intense selling pressure from investors, securities dealers were unable to fully absorb the high volume of trade orders into their inventory due to balance sheet capacity and funding constraints. As dealer capacity declined and demand for liquidity continued rising, volatility spread to the critical and normally highly liquid market for US Treasury securities, prompting the Federal Reserve to increase open market operations (March 12) and begin historically large purchases of US Treasuries (March …


United States: Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility, Carey K. Mott, Mallory Dreyer Jul 2022

United States: Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility, Carey K. Mott, Mallory Dreyer

Journal of Financial Crises

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, prime and tax-exempt money market funds (MMFs) faced increased demands for redemption. Meeting redemptions required MMFs to sell assets into increasingly illiquid markets. Using the emergency authority outlined in Section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve established the Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity Facility (MMLF), a facility similar in structure and purpose to a program that the Fed implemented in 2008 amidst the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). The MMLF extended nonrecourse loans to banks and their affiliates for the purchase from some …


Sweden: Corporate Bond Purchases, Carey K. Mott Jul 2022

Sweden: Corporate Bond Purchases, Carey K. Mott

Journal of Financial Crises

In the spring of 2020, corporate revenues in Sweden felt the direct effects of the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting public health measures. With future cash flows in question, many investors sold corporate debt for safe assets. Sweden's corporate bond market-particularly vulnerable to stress due to its heterogeneity, fragmentation, and lack of transparency-saw diminished liquidity. On March 19, 2020, the Sveriges Riksbank (Riksbank) announced it would purchase commercial paper and corporate bonds as part of a much larger bond-buying scheme, announced three days earlier, that included Swedish government, municipal, and covered bonds. It authorized the program under Chapter 6, Article …


Sweden: Commercial Paper Purchases, Carey K. Mott Jul 2022

Sweden: Commercial Paper Purchases, Carey K. Mott

Journal of Financial Crises

In March 2020, governments took measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic that significantly impacted corporate revenues. The uncertainty surrounding the pandemic drove investors out of corporate securities and into safe assets, complicating the ability of Swedish nonfinancial corporations to finance their operations. As the volume of commercial paper issuance dropped, the Sveriges Riksbank (Riksbank) announced on March 19, 2020, it would purchase commercial paper and corporate bonds as part of a much larger bond-buying scheme that included Swedish government, municipal, and covered bonds. It authorized the program under Chapter 6, Article 5 of the Sveriges Riksbank Act. …


Israel: Corporate Bond Purchase Program, Natalie Leonard Jul 2022

Israel: Corporate Bond Purchase Program, Natalie Leonard

Journal of Financial Crises

By March 2020, the quickly spreading novel coronavirus began disrupting business activity and industry, generating uncertainty throughout the global economy. As financial panic spread, Israeli investors fled to liquidity, impacting equities, corporate bonds, and even Israeli treasury securities. As short-term horizon mutual funds experienced high withdrawals in the first few weeks of March, they were forced to sell corporate bonds. This increase in supply pushed corporate bond prices down, and yields spiked. Between March and May, domestic rating agencies downgraded 23 companies (12% of all rated companies), and by July 2020, yields remained in the double-digits for 23% of corporate …


Canada: Provincial Bond Purchase Program, Natalie Leonard Jul 2022

Canada: Provincial Bond Purchase Program, Natalie Leonard

Journal of Financial Crises

In the beginning of 2020, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus placed significant strain on financial markets and especially affected commodity-producing countries like Canada. As the broad economy contracted, oil-exports fell, and the government imposed public health restrictions to contain coronavirus, the Bank of Canada (BoC) announced emergency measures to ensure functioning of financial markets and to "reach companies and households and foster a robust recovery" (Poloz 2020, 1). One market that faced acute strain was the Canadian provincial bond market. The BoC announced the Provincial Bond Purchase Program (PBPP) through a notice published on April 15, 2020. The stated …


Canada: Corporate Bond Purchase Program, Sharon M. Nunn Jul 2022

Canada: Corporate Bond Purchase Program, Sharon M. Nunn

Journal of Financial Crises

The Bank of Canada (BoC) activated its Corporate Bond Purchase Program (CBPP) from May 26, 2020, to May 26, 2021, in response to liquidity strains in corporate bond markets that stemmed from economic uncertainty and the COVID-19 pandemic. Policymakers enacted the CBPP as part of a broader suite of policies meant to stabilize the Canadian economy. Through the CBPP, the BoC purchased Canadian corporate bonds through a tender process on the secondary market. The CBPP could hold up to CAD 10 billion (USD 7.7 billion) par value of eligible bonds issued by specific non-deposit-taking firms incorporated in Canada. The bonds …


Disparate Financial Assistance Support For Small Business Owners, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Daniel Auguste, Mathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Weiss Jan 2022

Disparate Financial Assistance Support For Small Business Owners, Sophia Fox-Dichter, Daniel Auguste, Mathieu Despard, Michal Grinstein-Weiss

Social Policy Institute Research

Small business owners experienced a drastic economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Government pandemic assistance failed to reach many small business owners, especially those historically underserved by financial institutions. Drawing on a 2021 survey of 246 small business owners, the Social Policy Institute at Washington University in St. Louis descriptively examined the extent to which small business owners sought and received business assistance, and whether applications and approval of government assistance varied by race and ethnicity. We find that though Hispanic and Black business owners applied for government assistance at a higher rate than white business owners, Black business …


Predictors Of Social Distancing And Mask-Wearing Behavior: Panel Survey In Seven U.S. States, Plamen Nikolov, Andreas Pape, Ozlem Tonguc, Charlotte Williams Aug 2020

Predictors Of Social Distancing And Mask-Wearing Behavior: Panel Survey In Seven U.S. States, Plamen Nikolov, Andreas Pape, Ozlem Tonguc, Charlotte Williams

Economics Faculty Scholarship

This paper presents preliminary summary results from a longitudinal study of participants in seven U.S. states during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to standard socio-economic characteristics, we collect data on various economic preference parameters: time, risk, and social preferences, and risk perception biases. We pay special attention to predictors that are both important drivers of social distancing and are potentially malleable and susceptible to policy levers. We note three important findings: (1) demographic characteristics exert the largest influence on social distancing measures and mask-wearing, (2) we show that individual risk perception and cognitive biases exert a critical role in influencing …