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Christopher J. Palmer
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Christopher Palmer is the Albert and Jeanne Clear Career Development Professor and an Assistant Professor of Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management where he teaches corporate finance. His research focuses on how credit, real estate, and labor markets respond to periods of significant upheaval.
Palmer is also a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and an Affiliate with the Jameel Poverty Action Lab. He previously taught real estate finance at the University of California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and was a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Prior to graduate school, he consulted with Compass-Lexecon.
Palmer holds a BA in economics and mathematics from Brigham Young University and a PhD in economics from MIT.
Current Research Focus: Palmer's research focuses on how credit, real estate, and labor markets respond to periods of significant upheaval. His current research projects include studying the consequences of how consumers shop for credit, how households strategically use bankruptcy laws, how to improve federal housing entitlements, the effectiveness of disclosure laws, and how people form expectations about future house prices.
Honors
NBER appoints Palmer as a Faculty Research Fellow
Publications
"Testing the Effectiveness of Consumer Financial Disclosure: Experimental Evidence from Savings Accounts."
Palmer, Christopher John, Paul Adams, Redis Zaliauskas, and Stefan Hunt (NBER Working Paper No. 25718). Journal of Financial Economics. Forthcoming. Slides. Code. MarketWatch. The Economist. J-PAL Summary.
"Errors in the Dependent Variable of Quantile Regression Models."
Palmer, Christopher John, Jerry Hausman, Haoyang Liu, and Ye Luo. Econometrica Vol. 89, No. 2 (2021): 849–873. Data and Code.
"The Capitalization of Consumer Financing into Durable Goods Prices."
Argyle, Bronson, Taylor Nadauld, Christopher John Palmer, and Ryan Pratt. Journal of Finance Vol. 76, No. 1 (2021): 169-210. SFS Cavalcade 2019 Best Paper in Corporate Finance. NBER Digest. Slides.
"Monthly Payment Targeting and the Demand for Maturity."
Argyle, Bronson, Christopher John Palmer, and Taylor Nadauld. Review of Financial Studies Vol. 33, No. 11 (2020): 5416–5462. Data and Code. MIT News. Slides.
"Personal Bankruptcy and the Accumulation of Shadow Debt."
Argyle, Bronson, Benjamin Iverson, Taylor Nadauld, and Christopher John Palmer, MIT Sloan Working Paper 6150-20. Cambridge, MA: MIT Sloan School of Management, February 2021.
"How Quantitative Easing Works: Evidence on the Refinancing Channel."
Di Maggio, Marco, Amir Kermani, and Christopher John Palmer. Review of Economic Studies Vol. 87, No. 3 (2020): 1498-1528. Pre-publication Version. Appendix. Data and Code. Slides. VoxEU. Forbes. NBER Digest. MIT News.
Recent Insights
Press
Reducing segregation and increasing upward mobility in American cities
MIT Sloan School Professor Christopher Palmer partners with Seattle and King County Public Housing Authorities to pilot mobility program addressing the fading American Dream
Aug 4, 2019
Media Highlights
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Bloomberg (Radio)
Baystate Business: Christopher Palmer on rent control
Faculty:
Christopher J. Palmer
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Press
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The Hill (Opinion Piece)
Federal housing choice voucher program must be modernized
Faculty:
Christopher J. Palmer
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The Economist
Many consumers neither read nor understand the contracts they sign
Faculty:
Christopher J. Palmer
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MarketWatch (Opinion Piece)
Here's why most of us tune out when companies try to get our attention
Faculty:
Christopher J. Palmer
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