Turning everywhere,getting nowhere: experiences of seeking help for mortgage delinquency and their implications for foreclosure prevention

The growing literature on financial, demographic, and institutional aspects of the foreclosure crisis largely neglects the experiences and actions of homeowners. This in-depth account of homeowners' responses to mortgage delinquency and the success of the strategies they employ to prevent foreclosure is based on focus groups conducted in 2006 with low- and moderate-income homeowners, and nonprofit housing professionals in five US cities. The events precipitating mortgage delinquency often set off a cascade of trouble placing multiple demands on homeowners' financial, emotional, and social resources. Homeowners pursued foreclosure prevention assistance from a variety of sources including their lender, social welfare agencies, and nonprofit homeownership organizations, but encountered many obstacles to resolving mortgage delinquency. Their unsuccessful attempts to secure assistance contributed to financial and emotional strain and sometimes worsened prospects of preventing foreclosure. Despite the numerous federal policies developed to address the problem of foreclosure, the experiences described by participants in this study continue, indicating the need for more systematic, enforceable, and preventive policies to address foreclosures in the future.     

Originating lender localness and mortgage sustainability: an evaluation of delinquency and foreclosure in Indiana's mortgage revenue bond program

Originating lenders play a vital role in selecting and preparing borrowers for homeownership, directly and through partnerships with community entities. While previous research demonstrates the importance of originating lenders for mortgage access to low- and moderate-income borrowers, this analysis evaluates the influence of the originating lender, and in particular the localness of the lender, on mortgage sustainability (reduced delinquency and foreclosure). Employing data on more than 5,000 low- and moderate-income borrowers participating in Indiana's Mortgage Revenue Bond (MRB) program from 2004–2006, this analysis finds that the localness of the originating lender is significantly predictive of mortgage sustainability. After controlling for borrower, mortgage, and market characteristics, an increase in the localness of the lender is associated with a decrease in the probability of delinquency and foreclosure, particularly for higher risk (lower credit score) borrowers participating in the MRB program.     

Who wins the most when everybody wins? Predicting candidate performance in an authoritarian election

ABSTRACT

What explains the variation in vote shares received by candidates in single-party authoritarian elections where everybody wins? The scholarly literature has often ignored institutional variations, treated all authoritarian elections as similar, and explained the variation of vote shares as a consequence of clientelism, coercion or electoral fraud. We employ a unique data set for Cuba’s 2013 National Assembly election to show an alternative answer: even in authoritarian regimes, institutional settings shape voters’ behaviour and candidates’ strategies. When the number of candidates on the ballot equals the number of parliamentary seats and yet voters can express some preference among multiple candidates, valence can become a predictor of candidate performance. Voters reward high-quality politicians, but not incumbents or Communist Party members, while candidates have no incentives to actively distinguish themselves and converge toward the general support of the single united slate.     

Institutional legitimacy in Sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT

How do personal encounters with legal institutions shape citizens’ confidence in those institutions throughout sub-Saharan Africa? Using Afrobarometer’s cross-national citizen survey, we show that negative first-hand experiences with government courts and police erode citizens’ trust in those state institutions but do not tend to disrupt citizens’ perceptions of their authority to arbitrate or enforce the law. Individuals from diverse demographic backgrounds imbue state institutions with the right to perform their governance and law-enforcement duties, even after experiencing institutional incompetence or injustice. This article advances existing comparative research on legal institutions, which tends to conflate trust and legitimacy and overlooks the distinction between de facto performance and de jure authority. We suggest that rule-of-law institutions have deeper roots than some scholars have previously supposed.     

Guns,roses and democratization: Huntington's secret admirer in the Caucasus

Georgia is the most democratic country in the Caucasus, but arguably its democratization has also been riddled by Huntingtonian developmental crises, resulting in ethnic conflicts and civil wars. We argue that variation in the type of political instability is best understood by focusing on the interaction between nationalism and political institutionalization rather than on their independent effects. We show that Gamsakhurdia's “state-breaking nationalism”, coupled with political deinstitutionalization, produced separatist and centrist civil wars. When Saakashvili's “state-making nationalism” enhanced state capacity, it marginalized the opposition and rekindled frozen separatist conflicts, but stronger administrative institutions enabled the government to avert another revolutionary regime change.     

系统重要性金融机构监管的国际法制构建与中国回应

作为金融市场的一类特殊参与主体,系统重要性金融机构(SIFIs)具有负外部性,容易引发系统性风险与巨大政府救助成本。在传统的微观审慎监管体制之下,SIFIs的负外部性得不到充分处置,由此导致金融体系乃至实体经济的稳定受到严重威胁,2008年的全球金融危机充分暴露出传统金融监管法制的重大缺陷。在后危机时代,国际社会正在力图构建新型法制,对SIFIs实施专门监管,以防范金融系统性风险和危机。新型监管法制的构建围绕SIFIs的合理识别、强化监管以及有效处置这三个方面展开。我国应积极参与SIFIs监管的国际法制构建工作,同时积极构建与我国金融业现实情况相符的对SIFIs监管的国内法律制度。     

提高高校思想政治教育实效性的方法探析

在高校思想政治教育中,实效性缺失成为亟待解决的问题。提高实效性应逐渐成为加强和改进大学生思想政治教育的关键。文章在对高校思想政治教育实效性缺失产生的原因进行分析的基础上,对改进高校思想政治教育方法,切实提高高校思想政治教育的实效性,提出了有针对性的建议。     

The price of non-compliance with the Kyoto Protocol: The remarkable case of Norway

One of the ways to induce compliance is for an international enforcement mechanism to authorize the use of punitive consequences against a non-compliant country. However, such consequences should not cause significant damage to other (compliant) countries. The compliance mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol fails to meet this requirement. The Enforcement Branch of the Compliance Committee is instructed to impose punitive consequences on a non-compliant country that will have considerable adverse welfare effects for compliant countries as well. Using a numerical model, we show that in the case of Norway, the welfare effects can actually be worse if another country is punished than if Norway itself is punished.

试论房地产公司利用“假按揭”骗取贷款案件的侦防措施

在中国经济体系中房地产市场占有着相当大的部分,随着近几年来房价的一路走高,犯罪分子也将触角伸向了房地产市场这块巨大的蛋糕。要深入剖析房地产公司利用"假按揭"这种手法骗取银行贷款案件发生的原因、产生的危害后果、犯罪过程以及相关的侦防对策。     

医-患双方关系与医-患-社保三方关系——由深圳市社保局“钓鱼执法”引发的思考

我国已进入了医-患-社保三方关系的社会本位时代,但人们的思维意识、行为习惯还依然停留在医-患双方关系的个人本位时代。近年来社保定点医疗机构多发不规范医疗行为,甚至与参保患者不谋而合联手“作局”侵害社保利益也屡见不鲜。定点医疗机构与参保患者趋利内核中蕴藏的是强烈的自私利己之人性欲望本能,他们无视了一点：不能只享受社保带来的巨大好处而拒绝维护社保利益。因此,深圳市社保局处理违规定点医疗机构不但完全于法有据而且合理正当甚至难能可贵。但仅此是远远不够的,我们需要更彻底的观念更新及更深刻的制度变革。