Third Georgia Tech - Atlanta Fed Household Finance

Household Finance Conference

March 27 - 28, 2025

The Financial Services Innovation Lab at the Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta are co-organizing the third annual Household Finance Conference on March 27 - 28, 2025. Registration closes Thursday, March 20th at 11:59 p.m. EST.

The two-day conference will feature academic sessions, keynote addresses, and fireside chats to discuss the macroeconomic landscape, various issues impacting household balance sheets, and the challenges and opportunities to increase financial inclusion. The goal of this conference is to bring together academic researchers, regulators, and industry experts to a common platform for discussion on important topics in household finance.

Keynote Speaker

Prof. Jonathan Parker Professor Jonathan Parker

Robert C. Merton: Professor of Finance, co-director of the MIT Sloan Consumer Finance Initiative, and co-director of the MIT Golub Center for Finance and Policy

Conference Schedule and Agenda

Venue: Georgia Tech Alumni House

8:00 – 9:00 a.m.: Check-in and Light Breakfast

9:00 – 9:15 a.m.: Welcoming Remarks

Anuj Mehotra
Dean and Stephen P. Zelnak Jr. Chair, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business

9:15 – 10:15 a.m.: Session: Real Estate

Chair: Rohan Ganduri, Emory University

Monetary Policy and the Mortgage Market
Dominik Supera, Columbia University

Discussant: Paul Willen, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

The Winner’s Curse in Housing Markets
Soon Hyeok Choi, Rochester Institute of Technology

Discussant: (TBD)

10:15 – 10:25 a.m.: Coffee Break

10:25 – 11:25 a.m.: Session: Small Firms and Entrepreneurship

Chair: Manpreet Singh, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business

Loan Maturity and Asset Utilization: Evidence from private loan modification among SMEs
Christopher Eaglin, Duke University

Discussant: (TBD)

Beyond FICO: How Cash Flow Data Improves Credit Access for Young Entrepreneurs
Christopher Hair, Brigham Young University

Discussant: (TBD)

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: Lunch

12:30 – 2:00 p.m.: Session: Household Investment & Consumption

Chair: Nikhil Paradkar, University of Georgia

The Welfare Benefits of Pay-As-You-Go Financing
BrettGreen, Washington University, St.Louis

Discussant: (TBD)

Higher-Order Beliefs and Risky Asset Holdings
Xiao Yin, University College London

Discussant: (TBD)

The Wealth Draw-down of the Fabulously Rich: Insights from Private Family Foundations
Changhyun Ahn, CUHK

2:00 – 2:10 p.m.: Break

2:10 – 3:10 p.m.: Session: Design and Modification of Contracts

Chair: Xindi He, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business

Savings-and-Credit Contracts
Janis Skrastins, Washington University in St.Louis

Discussant: (TBD)

Intergenerational Effects of Debt Relief: Evidence from Bankruptcy Protection
Qianfan Wu, Indiana University

Discussant: Martin Kanz, WorldBank

3:20 – 4:00 p.m.: Walk Towards Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center (GT Hotel)

4:00 – 5:00 p.m.: Fireside Chat (Special Edition of Tech Talks Business) @ GT Hotel

Mark Begor, CEO, Equifax in conversation with
Anuj Mehrotra, Dean, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business

5:00 – 7:00 p.m.: Reception at the Georgia Tech Hotel
Venue: Atlanta Fed

8:30 – 9:30 a.m.: Check-in and Light Breakfast

9:30 – 10:50 a.m.: Young Scholars’ Session

Chair: Joe Hall, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business

Regulating Credit: The Impact of Price Regulations and Lender Technologies on Financial Inclusion
Susan Cherry, Stanford University

Does Partisanship Affect Household Consumption?
Yang Yi, University of Rochester

Screening in Loan Guarantee Programs: Combining Contract Menus with Information Collection
Yusik Andrew Kim, University of Texas, Austin

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: Keynote

Jonathan Parker
Robert C. Merton (1970) Professor of Financial Economics, MIT

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.: Lunch

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.: Session: Inequality

Chair: (TBD)

What Explains the Consumption Decisions of Low-Income Households?
Sasha Indarte, University of Pennsylvania

Discussant: (TBD)

Poverty Spreads in Domestic Markets
Arkodipta Sarkar, NUS

Discussant: (TBD)

2:00 – 2:15 p.m.: Break

2:15 – 3:15 p.m.: Session: Monetary Policy and Mortgage Markets

Chair: Kristopher Gerardi, Atlanta Fed

Financial and Total Wealth Inequality with Declining Interest Rates
Matteo Leombroni, Boston College

Discussant: Sharada Sridhar, Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business

The Real Effects of GSE Redistribution: Evidence from Difference-in-Discontinuity Estimates
You Suk Kim, Federal Reserve Board

Discussant: Rohan Ganduri, Emory University

3:15 – 3:30 p.m.: Break

3:30 – 4:30 p.m.: Policy Panel: The Future Direction of Housing Finance Policy in the U.S.

Moderator:
- Raphael Bostic
  President and Chief Executive Officer, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Panelist:
- Ed Demarko
  President, Housing Policy Council
- Scott Frame
  Chief Economist and Head of MBS Policy, Structured Finance Association
- Janneke Ratcliffe
  Vice President for Housing Finance, Urban Institute
4:30 – 5:00 p.m.: Closing Remarks and Announcements

5:00 – 6:00 p.m.: Reception at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Program Committee

Manuel Adelino, Duke University
Sumit Agarwal, National University of Singapore
Greg Buchak, Stanford University
Sylvain Catherine, University of Pennsylvania
Rajashri Chakraborti, Federal Reserve
Benjamin Collier, Temple University
Francesco D'Acunto, Georgetown University
Anthony DeFusco, University of Wisconsin
John Driscoll, Federal Reserve
Emily Gallagher, University of Colorado Boulder
Rohan Ganduri, Emory University
Paul Goldsmith-Pinkham, Yale University
Christopher Hansman, Emory University
Rawley Heimer, Arizona State University
Sean Higgins, Northwestern University
Sasha Indarte, University of Pennsylvania
Erica Jiang, University of Southern California
Martin Kanz, World Bank
Olivia Kim, Harvard University
Samuel Kruger, University of Texas at Austin
Camelia Kuhnen, University of North Carolina
Alok Kumar, University of Miami
Scott Nelson, University of Chicago
Nikhil Paradkar, University of Georgia
Amiyatosh Purnanandam, University of Michigan
Kelly Shue, Yale University
Heather Tookes, Yale University
Boris Vallée, Harvard University
Nishant Vats, Washington University in St. Louis
Emil Verner, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lulu Wang, Northwestern University
Constantine Yannelis, University of Chicago
David Zhang, Rice University

Organizing Committee

Georgia Tech Financial Services Innovation Lab: Sudheer Chava, Manasa Gopal, Joseph Hall, Bo Li, Sharada Sridhar
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta: Kristopher Gerardi, Mark Jensen

For your convenience, here are a few accommodation options nearby the conference:

The Georgian Terrace, 659 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta, GA 30308 - Located close to GT Hotel and right beside the Fox/ Down the street from the FED (great for sight seeing in ATL)
Renaissance Atlanta Midtown Hotel, 866 W Peachtree St NW, Atlanta, GA 30308 - Closest to GT Hotel (where the Tech Talk and reception will occur)
Hampton Inn Atlanta-Georgia Tech-Downtown, 244 North Avenue NW, Atlanta, GA 30313 - Closest to the Alumni House (where most of the conference will be held)
Crowne Plaza Atlanta - Midtown, 590 W Peachtree St NW, Atlanta, GA 30308 - Located on the edge of campus in between both the Alumni House and GT Hotel

Morning/Afternoon parking at the Georgia Tech Alumni House: Area 1 Visitor Parking Lot
Tech Talks Business and evening reception parking at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center: Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center Parking Deck (770 Spring St NW, Atlanta, GA 30332)
Note: Both lots are paid parking decks. No parking validation is available for conference participants. Guests can also park at either and walk between the Alumni House and Hotel and Conference Center, which is about a 10-minute walk.

Third Georgia Tech - Atlanta Fed Household Finance

Household Finance Conference

Keynote Speaker

Conference Schedule and Agenda

Venue: Georgia Tech Alumni House

8:00 – 9:00 a.m.: Check-in and Light Breakfast

9:00 – 9:15 a.m.: Welcoming Remarks

9:15 – 10:15 a.m.: Session: Real Estate

10:15 – 10:25 a.m.: Coffee Break

10:25 – 11:25 a.m.: Session: Small Firms and Entrepreneurship

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.: Lunch

12:30 – 2:00 p.m.: Session: Household Investment & Consumption

2:00 – 2:10 p.m.: Break

2:10 – 3:10 p.m.: Session: Design and Modification of Contracts

3:20 – 4:00 p.m.: Walk Towards Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center (GT Hotel)

4:00 – 5:00 p.m.: Fireside Chat (Special Edition of Tech Talks Business) @ GT Hotel

5:00 – 7:00 p.m.: Reception at the Georgia Tech Hotel

Venue: Atlanta Fed

8:30 – 9:30 a.m.: Check-in and Light Breakfast

9:30 – 10:50 a.m.: Young Scholars’ Session

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: Keynote

12:00 – 1:00 p.m.: Lunch

1:00 – 2:00 p.m.: Session: Inequality

2:00 – 2:15 p.m.: Break

2:15 – 3:15 p.m.: Session: Monetary Policy and Mortgage Markets

3:15 – 3:30 p.m.: Break

3:30 – 4:30 p.m.: Policy Panel: The Future Direction of Housing Finance Policy in the U.S.

4:30 – 5:00 p.m.: Closing Remarks and Announcements

5:00 – 6:00 p.m.: Reception at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta

Committees

Accommodations

Venue and Parking