Jason Allen

Senior Research Director

Jason Allen is a Senior Research Director in the Financial Market Department at the Bank of Canada. He is an applied microeconomist whose primary research interests center on the household sector and the role that competition in retail banking plays in shaping credit outcomes. Specific topics include price competition in the mortgage market and bankruptcy choice. Jason Allen received his PhD in economics from Queen’s University.

Latest

The Impact of Macroprudential Housing Finance Tools in Canada: 2005–10

Staff Working Paper 2016-41 Jason Allen, Timothy Grieder, Brian Peterson, Tom Roberts

This paper combines loan-level administrative data with household-level survey data to analyze the impact of recent macroprudential policy changes in Canada using a microsimulation model of mortgage demand of first-time homebuyers.

Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Financial system regulation and policies JEL Code(s): C, C6, C63, D, D1, D14, G, G2, G28

The Impact of Bankruptcy Reform on Insolvency Choice and Consumer Credit

Staff Working Paper 2016-26 Jason Allen, Kiana Basiri

We examine the impact of the 2009 amendments to the Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act on insolvency decisions. Rule changes steered debtors out of division I proposals and into the more cost-effective division II proposals.

Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Financial Institutions, Financial system regulation and policies JEL Code(s): D, D1, D14, G, G2, K, K3, K35

Capital Structure, Pay Structure and Job Termination

Staff Working Paper 2016-12 Jason Allen, James R. Thompson

We develop a model to analyze the link between financial leverage, worker pay structure and the risk of job termination. Contrary to the conventional view, we show that even in the absence of any agency problem among workers, variable pay can be optimal despite workers being risk averse and firms risk neutral.

Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Financial Institutions, Labour markets JEL Code(s): G, G2, G24, J, J3, J33

February 21, 2013 Conference Summary: Financial Intermediation and Vulnerabilities

Bank of Canada Review - Winter 2012-2013 Jason Allen, James Chapman, Ian Christensen

The Bank of Canada’s annual economic conference, held in October 2012, brought together experts from across Canada and around the world to discuss key issues concerning financial intermediation and vulnerabilities. The conference covered such topics as household finances and their relationship to financial stability, as well as bank regulation, securitization and shadow banking.

Content Type(s): Publications, Bank of Canada Review Article Topic(s): Central bank research, Financial stability, Financial system regulation and policies JEL Code(s): G, G2

Price Negotiation in Differentiated Products Markets: Evidence from the Canadian Mortgage Market

Staff Working Paper 2012-30 Jason Allen, Robert Clark, Jean-François Houde

This paper measures market power in a decentralized market where contracts are determined through a search and negotiation process. The mortgage industry has many institutional features which suggest competitiveness: homogeneous contracts, negotiable rates, and, for a given consumer, common lending costs across lenders.

Content Type(s): Staff Research, Staff Working Papers Topic(s): Financial Institutions, Financial services, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): D, D4, G, G2, G21, L, L2, L22

Other

Refereed journals

"Search Frictions and Market Power in Negotiated Price Markets",
(with Robert Clark and Jean-Francois Houde). NBER Working Paper No. 19883, Forthcoming Journal of Political Economy.
"The impact of bankruptcy reform on consumer insolvency choice"
(with Kiana Basiri), Forthcoming Canadian Public Policy.
"The Impact of Macroprudential Housing Finance Tools in Canada"
(with Tim Grieder, Brian Peterson, and Tom Roberts), Journal of Financial Intermediation.
"Consumer Bankruptcy, Bank Mergers, and Information"
(with Evren Damar and David Martinez-Miera), Review of Finance, July 2016, Volume 20, Issue 4, p. 1289-1320.
"Bank Loans for Private and Public Firms in a Liquidity Crunch”
(with Teodora Paligorova), Journal of Financial Stability, vol. 18 (June), p. 106-116.
"Efficiency and Bargaining Power in the Interbank Loan Market”
(with James Chapman, Federico Echenique and Matthew Shum), International Economic Review, May 2016, vol. 57(2), p. 691-716.
"The Effect of Mergers in Search Markets: Evidence from the Canadian Mortgage Industry",
(with Robert Clark and Jean-Francois Houde). American Economic Review, 2014, 104(10), p. 3365-3396.
"Price Dispersion in Mortgage Markets"
(with Robert Clark and Jean-Francois Houde). Journal of Industrial Economics, 2014, 62(3), p. 377-416.
"Empirical Likelihood Block Bootstrapping,"
(with Allan W. Gregory and Katsumi Shimotsu), Journal of Econometrics, 2011, 161(2), p. 110-121.
"Canadian City Housing Prices and Urban Market Segmentation,"
(with Robert Amano, David P. Byrne, and Allan W. Gregory). Canadian Journal of Economics, vol. 42(3), p. 1132-1149, 2009.
"Size Matters: Covariance Matrix Estimation under the Alternative,"
The Econometrics Journal vol. 10(1), p. 637-644, 2007.
"Efficiency and Economies of Scale of Large Canadian Banks,"
(with Ying Liu), Canadian Journal of Economics vol. 40(1), p. 225-244, 2007.

Work in Progress

"Macroprudential Housing Policies and Borrowing Constraints"
(with Robert Clark and Jean-Francois Houde).

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February 21, 2013 Conference Summary: Financial Intermediation and Vulnerabilities

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