Topic: Mortgage Prepayments in China and Monetary Policy Transmission

Speaker: Wenxi (Griffin) Jiang, Professor of Finance, CUHK Business School, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Time: 10:00am-11:30am, Wednesday, September 24

Location: 4-101

Abstract:

During the 2019–2024 monetary easing cycle, Chinese households used their savings to prepay unprecedented amounts of mortgages. Because refinancing was restricted, mortgage rates remained rigid, while savings returns quickly adjusted to rate cuts. The widening gap between borrowing costs and savings returns encouraged households to deleverage, even reducing consumption in order to prepay more and avoid future interest expenses. Exploiting loan-level data from a major bank, a quasi-natural policy experiment, and UnionPay’s spending records, we provide consistent evidence at both the household and city levels. Our findings suggest that rigid mortgage rates have rendered China’s monetary easing counterproductive.

Speaker Biography:

Prof. Wenxi (Griffin) Jiang is Professor of Finance at CUHK Business School, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He graduated from Yale University with a PhD in Financial Economics in 2015. His research interests include financial institution, climate finance, investor behavior, and Chinese financial markets. His research papers appear at the Journal of Econometrics, The Journal of Finance, and the Review of Financial Studies. Prof. Jiang teaches “Financial Markets,” “China Finance,” and “Impact Investment” to undergraduate, master, and various executive program at CUHK. He is the recipient of the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award and Vice Chancellor’s Exemplary Teaching Award.