Christian Danne

This paper studies the determinants of receiving a loan modification and the factors explaining repayment after mortgage modification using a unique Irish dataset. Compared to previous studies, our dataset allows us to observe borrower and loan characteristics at the time the borrower experiences payment difficulties and to directly observe the outcome of the renegotiation process. The results show that current borrower characteristics rather than loan characteristics matter for receiving a permanent modification and making full payment after modification. A higher mortgage repayment to income ratio, higher household leverage, and higher household expenditure reduce the probability of receiving a permanent modification and the probability of full payment after modification. In addition, both unemployment and divorce prior to engaging in mortgage renegotiations, reduce the probability of receiving a permanent modification and the payment performance after modification. The change in borrowers mortgage repayment and thus their subsequent mortgage affordability is the key driver of a successful modification, irrespective of the modification type.

SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus, spread across Germany within just a short period of time. Seroepidemiological studies are able to estimate the proportion of the population with antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 infection (seroprevalence) as well as the level of undetected infections, which are not captured in official figures. In the seroepidemiological study Corona Monitoring Nationwide (RKI-SOEP-2), biospecimens and interview data were collected in a nationwide population-based subsample of the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). By using laboratory-analyzed blood samples to detect antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, we were able to identify a history of vaccination or infection in study participants. By combining these results with survey data, we were able to identify groups within the population that are at increased risk of infection. By linking the RKI-SOEP-2 survey data with data from other waves of the SOEP survey, we will be able to examine the medium- to long-term impacts of the COVID-...

This paper constructs agreement specific instruments in order to estimate the effect of membership in a regional cooperation agreement (RCA) on institutional change. For a sample of 144 emerging and developing economies, the results show that membership in a RCA explains a significant part of the cross country variation in institutional reforms. EU and NATO-related agreements are an important reason why emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have been better reformers despite their socialistic heritage. RCAs are a main factor why African economies are still doing very poorly in terms of institutional reforms. I show that the construction of the RCA and the willingness delegate sovereignty is behind the effect on institutions and is an important transmission channel of how historical experiences are shaping current institutions.

This paper studies the determinants of receiving a loan modification and the factors explaining repayment after mortgage modification using a unique Irish dataset. Compared to previous studies, our dataset allows us to observe borrower and loan characteristics at the time the borrower experiences payment difficulties and to directly observe the outcome of the renegotiation process. The results show that current borrower characteristics rather than loan characteristics matter for receiving a permanent modification and making full payment after modification. A higher mortgage repayment to income ratio, higher household leverage, and higher household expenditure reduce the probability of receiving a permanent modification and the probability of full payment after modification. In addition, both unemployment and divorce prior to engaging in mortgage renegotiations, reduce the probability of receiving a permanent modification and the payment performance after modification. The change in ...

VARsignR identifies structural shocks in Vector Autoregressions (VARs) using sign restrictions. It implements Uhlig’s (2005) rejection method, Uhlig’s (2005) penalty function approach, the Rubio-Ramirez et al. (2010) rejection method, and Fry and Pagan’s (2011) median target method. This vignette shows the usage and provides some technical information on the procedures that should help users to bridge the gap between VARsignR and the underlying technical papers.

This paper constructs agreement specific instruments in order to estimate the effect of membership in a regional cooperation agreement (RCA) on institutional change. For a sample of 144 emerging and developing economies, the results show that membership in a RCA explains a significant part of the cross country variation in institutional reforms. EU and NATO-related agreements are an important reason why emerging markets in Eastern Europe and Central Asia have been better reformers despite their socialistic heritage. RCAs are a main factor why African economies are still doing very poorly in terms of institutional reforms. I show that the construction of the RCA and the willingness delegate sovereignty is behind the effect on institutions and is an important.