Political Economies of Acute Childhood Illnesses: Measuring Structural Racism as Mesolevel Mortgage Market Risks

Objectives: Health studies of structural racism/discrimination have been animated through the deployment of neighborhood effects frameworks that engage institutional­ist concerns about sociopolitical resources and mobility structures. This study high­lights the acute illness risks of place-based inequalities and neighborhood-varying race-based inequalities by focusing on access to and the regulation of mortgage markets.Design: By merging neighborhood data on lending processes from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act with individual health from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, this article evalu­ates the acute childhood illness risks of four mutually inclusive, political economies using multilevel generalized linear models.Setting: Chicago, IL, USAParticipants: Youth aged 0 to 17 yearsMethods: Multilevel logistic regressionMain Outcome Measures: The prevalence of 11 acute illnesses (cold/flu, sinus trouble, sore throat/tonsils, headache, upset stom­ach, bronchitis, skin infection, pneumonia, UTI, fungal disease, mononucleosis) and the past-year frequencies of 6 acute illnesses (cold/flu, sinus trouble, sore throat/tonsils, headache, upset stomach, bronchitis) are evaluated.Results: The most theoretically consistent predictor of illness is a measure identifying neighborhoods with above-city-median levels of racial disparities in the regulation of loans – a mesolevel measure of structural racism. In areas with high levels of Minority- White differences in less regulated credit, youth are more likely to have a range of acute illnesses and experience them at more frequent intervals in the past year.Conclusions: This article highlights the substantive and methodological importance of focusing on multidimensional representa­tions of institutionalized political economic inequalities circumscribed and traversed by the power relations established by institu­tions and the state.Ethn Dis.2021;31(Suppl1):319-332; doi:10.18865/ed.31.S1.319

The Neighborhood Attainment of Mixed-Race Couples across the Black/White Spectrum

With the removal of legal barriers to mixed-race marriage, there has been a consistent increase in the number of Black-White couples. This has coincided with growth in the number of Black-White individuals who have formed couples with a Black or White partner. Little is known, however, about how these couples function within a key area of stratification—neighborhood attainment. We use data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act and the U.S. Census to investigate the percentage of Whites and the average income in the neighborhoods of home-purchasing couples defined by their levels of Black and White representation. These couples being White couples, Black-White individuals with White partners, Black-White couples, Black-White individuals with Black partners, and Black couples. Findings reveal that the percentage of Whites and average income in the neighborhoods of couples decrease as couples increase in Black representation. These results have implications for our understanding of the contemporary color line.

New Faces, New Neighbors? How Latino Population Growth and Lending Expansion Shapes the Neighborhood Racial and Ethnic Composition for White and Latino Homebuyers

Fueled by increased socioeconomic status (SES), geographic mobility, and access to lending, Latino home buying expanded during the recent housing boom. However, less is known about the types of neighborhoods Latino homebuyers accessed during this time. To address this gap, we explore how SES, mortgage type, and the metropolitan racial and ethnic context affected the racial and ethnic composition of neighborhoods for new white and Latino homeowners. We use data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act to explore these processes in 317 U.S. metropolitan areas from 2000 to 2010. Overall, we find evidence supporting both spatial assimilation theory and place stratification theory: while increased SES and loan amounts led to more white neighbors for both white and Latino homebuyers, subprime loans and the racial and ethnic context of metropolitan areas continue to constrain neighborhood attainment for Latinos.

Impacting Community Well-Being in Lafayette, Indiana, in the Midst of a Pandemic

For the past five years, Dr. Jason Ware has centered community-based research and service-learning courses around local community partners’ needs as they focused collectively on community well-being issues. The nature of their work has prioritized qualitative research methods such as narrative inquiry via in-depth interviews and ethnography via immersive observations within varying service-providing institutions such as the Hartford Hub and the Hanna Community Center. COVID-19 and the constant threat of its transmission meant that Dr. Ware, his students, and their community partners had to approach their work differently. They responded with a pivot. They turned to mining large publicly accessible and proprietary data sets, such as United States Census data, Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) data, the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) data, and the Polk Directory data. The pivot served as a direct response to the City of Lafayette’s need for useful data that could inform decision-making related to neighborhood revitalization, affordable housing, and homelessness intervention. This different approach impacted the co-authors’ learning and scholarly development and provided the community partners with useful data. The co-authors experienced increased autonomy in pursuing data-specific questions, extracting data, analyzing, and visualizing it. One of the co-authors taught himself Python to import, statistically analyze, and visualize the data, and then presented the findings to the City of Lafayette. The co-author’s initial work — a pilot study — led to a scaled-up project that resulted in five significant outputs for three different community partners with a direct impact on six neighborhoods in the north end of Lafayette. Another co-author, who focused on scholarship during the pandemic, led an effort to develop a comprehensive literature review focused on the effect of community-based robotics programs on minority youth. The co-author also had presentations accepted at the local, national, and international levels while working on multiple publications. The third co-author is partnering with the other authors to create an automated system that will support the collection, extraction, and analysis of secondary data that will facilitate sustainable data analysis into the future.

The Great Recession and Ethno-Racial Disparities in Access to Mortgage Credit

The mortgage industry has long been central to racially and ethnically stratified access to homeownership. Liberalized access to credit during the 1990s and early 2000s targeted subprime and other high-cost loans to individuals and communities of color. This article draws on annual data from the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) from 2004 through 2017 to assess short-term variation in racial and ethnic disparities in loan outcomes associated with the Great Recession. We show that, relative to the boom, this period is associated with a reduction in disparities in loan outcomes between non-Hispanic whites and Asians on the one hand and blacks and Latinos on the other. This is particularly true for the disproportionate channeling of black and Latino applicants into high-cost loans, and in communities with higher minority concentrations. As the economy and access to credit improved, particularly after 2011, black and Latino over-representation in high-cost loans began to rebound, though ethno-racial disparities in loan rejection continued well below levels observed during the boom years. The return of inequality in high-cost lending is particularly troubling in light of the sharp drop in minority applications. Implications for ethno-racial stratification are discussed.

Mortgage discrimination and breast cancer survival among older women in the United States.

e13615 Background: Although racism and racial residential segregation are widely considered to contribute to health disparities, including in breast cancer, studies examining the impact of mortgage discrimination, a factor contributing to residential racial segregation, and breast cancer survival are limited. The objective of this study is to examine the relationship between redlining (mortgage discrimination based on property location) and survival among older women with breast cancer. Methods: Using the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) database, we estimated redlining for all census tracts in the Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) within 15 Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) areas. This measure was linked by tract with a SEER-Medicare cohort of 27,516 women aged 66-90 years with an incident stage I-IV breast cancer in 2007-2009 and claims information through 2014. We used cox proportional hazards regression models with survival time as the outcome variable and a 4-level categorical logged redlining variable as the key predictor. We also modeled the hazard ratio using redlining as a continuous variable. Models were stratified by stage, ER/PR status, and age group and adjusted for comorbidity and MSA-level standard error. Results: At a median follow-up of 72 months, one-third of the cohort was deceased. The majority of the cohort had no comorbidities and had hormone receptor-positive, early stage (I/II) cancers. Redlining was associated with poorer survival. When redlining is discretized into four groups with approximate equal-sized intervals, the first and second highest redlining groups are significantly associated with all-cause mortality (HR = 1.226 [1.108, 1.355] for the highest group; HR = 1.159 [1.095, 1.228] for the second highest group). When redlining and its quadratic terms are included in the model, the original and square terms are significantly associated with all-cause mortality (HR = 1.177 [1.111, 1.248] for redlining; HR = 0.982 [0.973, 0.991] for squared redlining). Conclusions: The study suggests that redlining could negatively contribute to breast cancer survival. Persistent place-based mortgage discrimination, as a manifestation of institutional racism, could have long-term effects on people’s health, possibly by impacting health care access or exposing residents to harmful neighborhood conditions. Housing policies that seek to reduce or eliminate place-based mortgage discrimination could contribute to reducing breast cancer survival disparities.

Essays in bank lending

Ο τραπεζικός κλάδος διαδραματίζει κρίσιμο ρόλο στον σύγχρονο οικονομικό κόσμο, καθώς ο δανεισμός είναι μια από τις σημαντικότερες υπηρεσίες που παρέχουν οι τράπεζες και έχει ζωτικές επιπτώσεις στην κοινωνική και οικονομική ευημερία. Συγκεκριμένα, ο στεγαστικός δανεισμός είναι ζωτικής σημασίας για τη διαμόρφωση του βιοτικού επιπέδου των νοικοκυριών, ενώ ο εταιρικός δανεισμός έχει αποφασιστικό ρόλο στην ενίσχυση της πραγματικής οικονομικής δραστηριότητας και στην προώθηση της οικονομικής ανάπτυξης μιας χώρας. Η παρούσα διατριβή αποτελείται από τρία κεφάλαια τα οποία μελετούν τρία ξεχωριστά θέματα στον τομέα του τραπεζικού δανεισμού (στεγαστικά δάνεια και εταιρικά δάνεια).Στο Κεφάλαιο 1, με τίτλο «Διακρίσεις δανεισμού στις ΗΠΑ: Μια νέα μεθοδολογία και ο ρόλος της κρίσης των ενυπόθηκων δανείων», εξετάζουμε εάν υπάρχουν διακρίσεις στην παροχή και την τιμολόγηση στεγαστικών δανείων και εάν ναι, εάν το επίπεδο των διακρίσεων διαφέρει πριν και μετά την κρίση των subprime στεγαστικών δανείων. Χρησιμοποιώντας δεδομένα από 6,5 εκατομμύρια αιτήσεις δανεισμού από το 2004 έως το 2013, προτείνουμε μια νέα οικονομετρική προσέγγιση που στοχεύει να μειώσει σημαντικά την μεταβλητή μεροληψία (omitted-variable bias) της βάσης δεδομένων Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) και να εντοπίσει το επίπεδο των φυλετικών και εθνοτικών διακρίσεων στην παροχή στεγαστικών δανείων στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες της Αμερικής. Σε αντίθεση με προηγούμενες μελέτες, διαπιστώνουμε, κατά μέσο όρο, πολύ μικρές διακρίσεις ως προς την παροχή δανείων. Αν και οι διακρίσεις αυξάνονται κάπως μετά το 2007, η πιθανότητα τους παραμένει πολύ κάτω από το 1%. Αντίθετα, διαπιστώνουμε ότι οι λευκοί (μη Ισπανόφωνοι) αιτούντες πληρώνουν χαμηλότερο spread για τα παρεχόμενα δάνεια κατά 0,37 (0,11) μονάδες βάσης, αποτέλεσμα που προέρχεται σχεδόν εξ ολοκλήρου από την περίοδο πριν από την κρίση.Μια βασική πολιτική για τον περιορισμό της πιθανότητας ξαφνικής και μαζικής απόσυρσης τραπεζικών καταθέσεων (bank runs) είναι η θεσμοθέτηση ενός συστήματος ασφάλισης καταθέσεων (Deposit Insurance Scheme), το οποίο μπορεί να χρηματοδοτηθεί είτε με ιδιωτικά-τραπεζικά κεφάλαια είτε από το κράτος. Στο Κεφάλαιο 2, με τίτλο «Ευλογία ή κατάρα; Η κρατική χρηματοδότηση της ασφάλισης καταθέσεων και του εταιρικού δανεισμού», μελετάμε την επίδραση της κρατικής συμμετοχής στη χρηματοδότηση του συστήματος ασφάλισης καταθέσεων στα χαρακτηριστικά των δανείων. Χρησιμοποιώντας κοινοπρακτικά δάνεια (syndicated loans) από 63 χώρες κατά την περίοδο 1985-2016, δείχνουμε ότι οι αλλαγές στο σύστημα ασφάλισης καταθέσεων από αμιγώς ιδιωτικής χρηματοδότησης σε κρατικά χρηματοδοτούμενα ή συγχρηματοδοτούμενα αυξάνουν τα spreads κατά περίπου 4,6%, αυξάνουν περαιτέρω την προμήθεια του δανείου, μειώνουν το χρόνο ωρίμανσης του δανείου και αυξάνουν τη χρήση των προμηθειών απόδοσης. Τα ευρήματά μας συνάδουν με το πρόβλημα ηθικού κινδύνου (moral hazard) που ενέχουν τα συστήματα ασφάλισης καταθέσεων που χρηματοδοτούνται αποκλειστικά από κρατικούς πόρους.Στο Κεφάλαιο 3, με τίτλο «Δικαιώματα πιστωτών και εταιρικός δανεισμός», ελέγχουμε τη συμβατική διαπίστωση ότι η ισχυρότερη νομική προστασία των πιστωτών βελτιώνει τους όρους των συμφωνιών εταιρικών δανείων. Χρησιμοποιώντας δεδομένα παγκόσμιων κοινοπρακτικών δανείων (syndicated loans) από το 1986 έως το 2005, επανεξετάζουμε την επίδραση των δικαιωμάτων των πιστωτών στους όρους των εταιρικών δανείων. Αντί να εστιάζουμε μόνο στις διαφορές μεταξύ των χωρών, διερευνούμε επίσης τη διακύμανση εντός της χώρας στον δείκτη δικαιωμάτων πιστωτών (Creditor Rights Index) χρησιμοποιώντας country fixed effects και μεθοδολογίες μελέτης γεγονότων (event-study methodologies). Σε πλήρη αντίθεση με προηγούμενα ευρήματα, διαπιστώνουμε ότι το επίπεδο προστασίας των πιστωτών δεν επηρεάζει σημαντικά τις αποφάσεις των τραπεζών σχετικά με τους όρους εταιρικού δανείου. Τα ευρήματά μας υπογραμμίζουν ότι η ενίσχυση της προστασίας των πιστωτών δεν είναι απαραίτητα ο κατάλληλος μηχανισμός για την προώθηση πιο ανταγωνιστικών όρων δανεισμού.

Housing Affordability: Local and National Perspectives

This paper presents a new approach to measuring affordable homeownership. Future changes in the homeownership rate will depend on the ability of today’s renters to become homeowners. Our proposed housing affordability for renters index (HARI) focuses on how affordable homeownership is for current renters. We look at the share of renters who reported the same or more income than those who recently purchased a home using a mortgage, in effect measuring how many renters have enough income to purchase a house. For each metropolitan statistical area (MSA), we construct a local area index that compares renters and borrowers in the same MSA and a national index that compares renters nationwide with homeowners in a specific MSA. We rely on the Administrative Data Research Facility to construct these indices. This database, constructed by the Urban Institute, aggregates American Community Survey variables and Home Mortgage Disclosure Act variables to common geographies. The new indices reveal that slightly more than a quarter of current US renters have incomes higher than those who recently became homeowners using a mortgage. The indices also reveal how housing affordability differs over time and across race/ethnicity groups and locations. We demonstrate the value of our new indices by showing that they are predictive of homeownership rates: MSAs that are deemed more affordable by our index have higher homeownership rates.