Covered Farm Mortgage Bonds in the Late Nineteenth Century U.S

Kenneth Snowden ()

No 16242, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Covered mortgage bonds have been used successfully in Europe for two centuries, but failed in the U.S. when introduced as farm mortgage debentures in the 1880s. Using firm-level data and a sample of loans made by one Kansas mortgage company, I find that debenture programs grew out of established loan brokerage operations and were used to fund mortgages that were difficult to broker because of size, term or risk characteristics. Debentures broadened access to the interregional mortgage market and facilitated an expansion of western farm mortgage debt before the innovation failed in the mortgage crisis of the 1890s.

JEL-codes: G28 G29 N1 N11 N2 N21 N5 N51 R51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-07
Note: AP CF DAE
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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