Fernando Ferreira

Education

Ph.D. in Economics: University of California, Berkeley, 2004

M.A. in Economics: Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 1999

B.A. in Economics: State University of Maringa, Brazil, 1996

Academic Positions Held

Associate Professor, The Wharton School: 2011present

Assistant Professor, The Wharton School: 20042011

Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research: 2011present

Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research: 20082011

Faculty Fellow, Penn Institute for Urban Research: 2009present

Fernando Ferreira, Anthony DeFusco, Joseph Gyourko, Wenjie Ding (Work In Progress), The Role of Contagion in the Last American Housing Cycle.

Fernando Ferreira, Patrick Bayer, Stephen L. Ross (Work In Progress), What Drives Racial and Ethnic Differences in High Cost Mortgages? The Role of High Risk Lenders.

Abstract: This paper examines racial and ethnic differences in high cost mortgage lending in seven diverse metropolitan areas from 20042007. Even after controlling for credit score and other key risk factors, AfricanAmerican and Hispanic home buyers are 105 and 78 percent more likely to have high cost mortgages for home purchases. The increased incidence of high cost mortgages is attributable to both sorting across lenders (6065 percent) and differential treatment of equally qualified borrowers by lenders (3540 percent). The vast majority of the racial and ethnic differences across lender can be explained by a single measure of the lender's foreclosure risk and most of the withinlender differences are concentrated at highrisk lenders. Thus, differential exposure to highrisk lenders combined with the differential treatment by these lenders explains almost all of the racial and ethnic differences in high cost mortgage borrowing.

Fernando Ferreira, Patrick Bayer, Stephen Ross (2016), The Vulnerability of Minority Homeowners in the Housing Boom and Bust, American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 8 (1), pp. 127.

Abstract: This paper examines mortgage outcomes for a large sample of individual home purchases and refinances linked to credit scores in seven major US markets. Among those with similar credit scores and loan attributes, black and Hispanic homeowners had much higher rates of delinquency and default in the downturn. These estimated differences are especially pronounced for loans originated near the peak of the housing boom. These findings suggest that black and Hispanic homeowners drawn into the market near the peak were especially vulnerable to adverse economic shocks and raise concerns about homeownership as a mechanism for reducing racial disparities in wealth.

Fernando Ferreira and Joseph Gyourko (Working), A New Look at the U.S. Foreclosure Crisis: Panel Data Evidence of Prime and Subprime Borrowers from 1997 to 2012, (June 1, 2015).

Abstract: Utilizing new panel micro data on the ownership sequences of all types of borrowers from 19972012 leads to a reinterpretation of the U.S. foreclosure crisis as more of a prime, rather than subprime, borrower issue. Moreover, traditional mortgage default factors associated with the economic cycle, such as negative equity, completely account for the foreclosure propensity of prime borrowers relative to allcash owners, and for the threequarters of the analogous subprime gap. Housing traits, race, initial income, and speculators did not play a meaningful role, and initial leverage only accounts for a small variation in outcomes of prime and subprime borrowers.

Fernando Ferreira and Nathaniel BaumSnow (2015), Causal Inference in Urban Economics , Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, vol. 5A, May 2015. Edited by Duranton, Henderson, and Strange..

Abstract: Recovery of causal relationships in data is an essential part of scholarly inquiry in the social sciences. This chapter discusses strategies that have been successfully used in urban and regional economics for recovering such causal relationships. Essential to any successful empirical inquiry is careful consideration of the sources of variation in the data that identify parameters of interest. Interpretation of such parameters should take into account the potential for their heterogeneity as a function of both observables and unobservables.

Fernando Ferreira, Patrick Bayer, Stephen L. Ross (Work In Progress), Race, Ethnicity and High Cost Mortgage Lending.

Fernando Ferreira and Joseph Gyourko (2014), Does Gender Matter for Political Leadership? The Case of U.S. Mayors, Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 112, pp. 2439.

Fernando Ferreira, Leah Boustan, Hernan Winkler, Eric Zolt (2013), The Effect of Rising Income Inequality on Taxation and Public Expenditures: Evidence from US Municipalities and School Districts, 19702000 , Review of Economics and Statistics, 95 (4), pp. 12911302.

Abstract: The income distribution in many developed countries widened dramatically from 1970 to 2000. Some scholars argue that income inequality contributes to a host of social ills by undermining voters’ willingness to support public expenditures. In contrast, we find that growing income inequality is associated with an expansion in government revenues and expenditures on a wide range of services in U.S. municipalities and school districts. Results are robust to a number of model specifications, including instrumental variables that address the endogeneity of the local income distribution. Our results are inconsistent with models predicting that heterogeneous societies provide lower levels of public goods.

Fernando Ferreira and Joel Waldfogel (2013), Pop Internationalism: Has A Half Century of World Music Trade Displaced Local Culture? , Economic Journal, 123 (569), pp. 634664.

Abstract: Advances in communication technologies have increased the availability of cultural goods across borders, raising concerns that cultural products from large economies will displace those in smaller economies. This article provides stylized facts about global music consumption and trade since 1960 using a unique data on popular music charts corresponding to over 98% of the global music market. Contrary to growing fears about largecountry dominance, our gravity estimates show a substantial bias towards domestic music that has, perhaps surprisingly, increased in the past decade. Moreover, we find no evidence that new communications channels reduce the consumption of domestic music.

Fernando Ferreira, Patrick Bayer, Marcus Casey, Robert McMillan (Work In Progress), Estimating Racial Price Differentials in the Housing Market.

Past Courses

BEPP962 APPLIED ECONOMICS SEM

The goal of this course is to help doctoral students develop critical thinking skills through both seminar participation and writing of referee reports. To this end students will attend the Wharton Applied Economics each Wednesday at noon seminar when it meets; prepare two written referee reports on WAE papers per semester, due before the seminar is presented; after attending the seminar and the ensuing discussion of the paper students will prepare followup evaluations of their referee report reports, due one week after the seminar.

FNCE209 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS

This course provides a broad introduction to real estate with a focus on investment and financing issues. Project evaluation, financing strategies, investment decision making and real estate capital markets are covered. No prior knowledge of the industry is required, but students are expected to rapidly acquire a working knowledge of real estate markets. Classes are conducted in a standard lecture format with discussion required. The course contains cases that help students evaluate the impact of more complex financing and capital market tools used in real estate. There are case studies and two midterms, depending on instructor.

REAL209 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS

This course provides an introduction to real estate with a focus on investment and financing issues. Project evaluation, financing strategies, investment decision making and real estate capital markets are covered. No prior knowledge of the industry is required, but students are expected to rapidly acquire a working knowledge of real estate markets. Classes are conducted in a standard lecture format with discussion required. The course contains cases that help students evaluate the impact of more complex financing and capital markets tools used in real estate. There are case studies and two midterms, (depending on instructor).

REAL399 INDEPENDENT STUDY

All independent studies must be arranged and approved by a Real Estate department faculty member with the exception of the Annual Student Research Competition. ,Annual Student Research Seminar: This class meets in the Spring semester to analyze how to conduct research in the real estate market where to find data; how to critique research; how to frame research questions; how to write a business research report; how to present a business research report. Topics are provided each year. For more information regarding the Annual Student Research Competition see the Real Estate Department's website: http://realestate.wharton.upenn.edu/.

REAL721 REAL ESTATE INVESTMENTS

This course provides an introduction to real estate with a focus on investment and financing issues. Project evaluation, financing strategies, investment decision making and capital markets are covered. No prior knowledge of the industry is required, but students are expected to rapidly acquire a working knowledge of real estate markets. Classes are conducted in a standard lecture format with discussion required. The course contains cases that help students evaluate the impact of more complex financing and capital markets tools used in real estate. There are case studies and two midterms, (depending on instructor). Crosslisted with FNCE 721.

REAL900 REAL ESTATE PROSEMINAR

Real estate is a rapidly changing and evolving field. Traditional course offerings are not always able to incorporate the most recent advances in the many areas that make up the field of real estate. In this course, the participants both faculty and students research and present current topics and recent advances in real estate. The content will vary depending on the participants' interests and areas of expertise, but will typically cover urban economics, spatial issues, the economics of housing and commercial real estate markets, and real estate finance and investment. ,This course is intended to expand students' awareness of current topics in real estate and to prepare them to conduct their own academic quality research. The proseminar is organized as a series of lectures by faculty and students on topics of their own choosing. These lectures may involve wellknown areas of knowledge, research, and methodology, as well as subjects currently under study. The main course requirements are preparing and presenting a series of lectures on a real estate topic (subject to the organizing faculty member's approval) and writing a research proposal that describes a workable project building upon or extending one of the topics covered in the course.

REAL945 URBAN REAL ESTATE ECON

Urban Real Estate Economics uses economic concepts to analyze real estate markets, values, and trends. The course focuses on market dynamics in the U.S. and internationally, with an emphasis on how urban growth and local and federal government policies impact urban development and real estate pricing. A group development project gives hands on experience, and invited guest speakers bring industry knowledge. Besides the group project and presentation, problem sets are required along with a midterm and optional second exam. ,All PhD students will be expected to complete a research paper in addition to the successful completion of the course examination requirements.

REAL946 ADV TOPIC IN URBAN ECON

This course addresses advanced topics in urban and real estate economics. The course will mix theory and empirics and will cover a broad range of topics including the modeling and estimation of agglomeration economies, land use and urban costs, transportation in cities, urban growth, migration between cities etc. The classes will mix formal presentations made by the instructor and studentled discussions of recent academic papers. In addition to presentations, students will be expected to complete a series of assignments including a short original research paper.

REAL947 ADV REAL EST & URB ECON

This course covers fundamental and cuttingedge topics in urban economics and real estate as well as the most important econometric issues that arise in the estimation of urban economics and real estate models. The first part of the course focuses on the application of modern econometric methods to analyze empirical questions in the broad urban economics field, which includes topics from public economics and local finances, such as household sorting and valuation of public goods. This part of the course is especially concerned about dealing with nonexperimental data, and also provides a guide for tools that are useful for applied research. The second and third parts of the course examine the economic modeling and intuition of a range of topics in urban economics and real estate, such as spacial equilibrium, supply and demand of space, housing prices and cycles. In addition, special emphasis is given to how the understanding of economic theory and institutions can help any empirical analysis. At the end of the couse students should have a firm grasp of theory and econometric tools that lead to convincing empirical applications. ,All Ph.D. students will be expected to complete a research paper in addition to the successful completion of the course examination requirements.

REAL962 APPLIED ECONOMICS SEM

The goal of this course is to help doctoral students develop critical thinking skills through both seminar participation and writing of referee reports. To this end students will attend the Wharton Applied Economics each Wednesday at noon seminar when it meets; prepare two written referee reports on WAE papers per semester, due before the seminar is presented. After attending the seminar and the ensuing discussion of the paper, students will prepare followup evaluations of their referee report reports, due one week after the seminar.

REAL999 INDEPENDENT STUDY

• America’s Growing Hispanic Population: Investing in the Future ‘Mainstay of Our Labor Force’, Knowledge@Wharton 04/27/2011
• Few in U.S. move for new jobs, fueling fear the economy might get stuck, too, Washington Post 07/30/2010

Knowledge @ Wharton

• Why Millennials Are Delaying Home Buying More Than Ever, Knowledge @ Wharton 11/18/2015
• Why Subprime Lenders Didn’t Cause the Housing Crash, Knowledge @ Wharton 09/17/2015
• The Role of Contagion in the Housing Boom (and Bust), Knowledge @ Wharton 08/26/2014
• Propping up the American Dream: Housing Reform Proposals Are on the Rise, Knowledge @ Wharton 04/28/2014
• As Poverty Grows in the Suburbs, Businesses and Governments Confront New Challenges, Knowledge @ Wharton 08/15/2013
• Optimism Is Up, but the U.S. Housing Market Faces a Painful Shift, Knowledge @ Wharton 04/25/2012
• Research Roundup: Homeowner Mobility, Divestitures and the Real Impact of FDI, Knowledge @ Wharton 12/07/2011
• America’s Growing Hispanic Population: Investing in the Future ‘Mainstay of Our Labor Force’, Knowledge @ Wharton 04/27/2011
• The Walls Keep Tumbling Down: Foreclosure Flap and Other Housing Industry Woes, Knowledge @ Wharton 10/13/2010
• Not With the Plan: State Budget Woes Create a Black Hole for U.S. Stimulus Funds, Knowledge @ Wharton 08/05/2009