Can Time‐Varying Risk Premia and Household Heterogeneity Explain Credit Cycles?

Abstract

Using micro-level household mortgage data, I measure dispersion in the credit quality of borrowers in the housing market and show that it forecasts regional real economic activity. I provide empirical evidence that associates the predictive power of dispersion with heterogeneity in the exposure of households' labor income to economy-wide shocks. I explain these observations in a model featuring time-varying risk premia, incomplete markets, and household heterogeneity. Due to risk aversion, the consumption and investment responses of households have a convex association with their labor income exposure to aggregate risks. As a result, dispersion forecasts the aggregate output more strongly in more heterogeneous regions, consistent with the data.