Failure to Launch: Housing, Debt Overhang, and the Inflation Option
研究了通胀能否有效缓解衰退，发现普通衰退中提高通胀目标效果有限，但在大衰退等时期，通胀能提升房价、消费并大幅减少止赎，但仅当固定利率抵押贷款为主时有效。
Can inflating away nominal mortgage liabilities effectively combat recessions? I address this question using a model of illiquid housing, endogenous credit supply, and equilibrium default. I show that, in an ordinary recession, temporarily raising the inflation target has only modest or even counterproductive effects. However, during episodes like the Great Recession, inflation effectively boosts house prices, consumption, and dramatically cuts foreclosures, but only when fixed-rate mortgages are the dominant instrument. The quantitative implications of inflation also vary if other nominal rigidities or demand externalities are present. In the cross section, inflation delivers especially large gains to highly leveraged homeowners.