Subprime borrowers, securitization and the transmission of business cycles

A growing literature (e.g., Jaffee et al. 2009, Acharya and Schnabl 2009) argues that securitization improves financial stability if the securitized assets are held by capital market participants, rather than financial intermediaries. I construct a quantitative macroeconomic model with a novel specification for mortgage‐backed securities (MBS) to evaluate this claim. My findings suggest that the existence of the securitization market stabilizes...