Senior Economist and Policy Advisor
T: 617-973-3149
F: 617-973-2123
Paul.Willen@bos.frb.org
Paul Willen's research page

Biography
Paul Willen is a senior economist and policy advisor in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. Paul's research focuses on household financial management; recently he has spent much of his time studying mortgage markets. His research appears in the Review of Economics and Statistics, Economic Theory, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Urban Economics, the NBER Macro Annual, the Brookings papers on Economic Activity, and elsewhere. Paul's research on the origins of the subprime crisis has appeared in scholarly journals and has been cited in virtually every major newspaper in the United States. Prior to joining the Boston Fed in 2004, Paul was on the faculty at Princeton and the University of Chicago. He has also been a visiting member of the faculty at MIT in each of the last three years. Paul did his undergraduate work at Williams College and got his Ph.D. from Yale University.

Education

Ph.D., economics, Yale University, 1997

M. Phil., economics, Yale University, 1995

M.A., economics, Yale University, 1994

B.A., economics, Williams College, 1990

Work experience

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Senior Economist and Policy Advisor, 2007-
Senior Economist, 2004-2006

 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Visiting Associate Professor of Economics,
Department of Economics, Fall 2006

 

National Bureau of Economic Research

Faculty Research Fellow, 2004-

 

University of Chicago

Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Business, 2000-2004

 

Princeton University

Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, 1997-2000

Selected publications

"Reducing Foreclosures." with Christopher Foote, Kristopher S. Gerardi and Lorenz Goette. NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2009, forthcoming.

"The Impact of Deregulation and Financial Innovation on Consumers: The Case of the Mortgage Market." with Kristopher S. Gerardi and Harvey Rosen. Journal of Finance, forthcoming.

"Subprime Mortgages, Foreclosures, and Urban Neighborhoods." with Kristopher S. Gerardi. BE Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, forthcoming.

"Making Sense of the Subprime Crisis." with Kristopher S. Gerardi, Andreas Lehnert and Shane Sherlund. Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, forthcoming.

"Just the Facts: An Initial Analysis of the Subprime Crisis." with Christopher Foote, Kristopher S. Gerardi and Lorenz Goette. 2008. Journal of Housing Economics, 17(4): 291-305.

"Negative Equity and Foreclosure: Theory and Evidence," with Christopher Foote and Kristopher S. Gerardi. 2008. Journal of Urban Economics, 64(2): 234-245.

"Social Security and Unsecured Debt" with Erik Hurst. 2007. Journal of Public Economics, 91: 1273-1297

“Borrowing Costs and the Demand for Equity over the Life Cycle.” with Steven J. Davis and Felix Kubler. The Review of Economica and Statistics, 88(2): 348-362. A previous version of this paper appeared as FRB Boston Working Papers Series, paper no. 05-7 (2005).

“Educational Opportunity and Income Inequality.” with Igal Hendel and Joel Shapiro. 2005. Journal of Public Economics 89: 841-870. A previous version of this paper appeared as FRB Boston Public Policy Discussion Papers Series, paper no. 04-5 (2004).

Recent unpublished papers

"A Proposal to Help Distressed Homeowners: A Government Payment-Sharing Plan," with Chris Foote, Jeff Fuhrer and Eileen Mauskopf. FRB Boston Public Policy Brief Series, no. 09-1, (2009)

"Why Don't Lenders Renegotiate More Home Mortgages? Redefaults, Self-Cures, and Securitization," with Manuel Adelino and Kristopher S. Gerardi. FRB Boston Public Policy Discussion Paper Series, paper no. 09-4 (2009)

"Reducing Foreclosures," with Christopher Foote, Kristopher S. Gerardi and Lorenz Goette. FRB Boston Public Policy Discussion Papers Series, paper no. 09-2 (2009).

"Making Sense of the Subprime Crisis," with Kristopher S. Gerardi, Andreas Lehnert, and Shane M. Sherland. FRB Boston Public Policy Discussion Papers Series, paper no. 09-1 (2009)

“Subprime Outcomes: Risky Mortgages, Homeownership Experiences, and Foreclosures,” with Kristopher S. Gerardi and Adam Hale Shapiro. FRB Boston Working Papers Series, paper no. 07-15 (2007).

“The Theory of Life-Cycle Saving and Investing,” with Zvi Bodie and Jonathan Treussard. FRB Boston Public Policy Discussion Papers Series, paper no. 07-3 (2007).

“Collateralized Borrowing and Life-Cycle Portfolio Choice,” with Felix Kubler. FRB Boston Public Policy Discussion Papers Series, paper no. 06-4 (2006).

“Incomplete Markets and Trade.” FRB Boston Working Papers Series, paper no. 04-8 (2004).

 

Public service

Referee: Review of Economic Studies, Econometrica, American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Political Economy, National Science Foundation, Review of Economic Dynamics, Journal of International Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Review of Economic Dynamics, Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, BE Journals in Macroeconomics.

Recent seminar presentations: Boston College, Boston University, University of Chicago, Federal Reserve Board, Federal Reserve Banks of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, and New York, Harvard, Northwestern, University of Venice, Wharton.

Recent conference presentations: American Economic Association Meetings (2007),Federal Reserve Macro System Meeting (Spring, Fall 2006), SED Meetings (Summer 2006), Econometric Sociewty Meetings (Summer 2006), NBER Summer Institute (Summer 2006), Federal Reserve Micro System Meeting (Spring 2006), Cowles-CARESS GE Conference (Spring 2006), Western Finance Association (Summer 2004).