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The previous literature finds evidence from birth dates of CEOs that the relative-age effect continually influences their career success. The authors look at a significantly larger collection of CEOs and more exact information on school cut-off dates to reexamine the relative-age effect.

The relative-age effect suggests that older individuals within a cohort are more successful. This study investigates if the relative-age effect exists for CEOs in the S&P 1500 by analyzing the distribution of their relative age. The authors utilize an identification strategy that allows to calculate a CEO's relative age in months and enables to resolve known identification problems.

The authors find no support for the existence of the relative-age effect for CEOs either by season of birth or relative age in months. On the whole, the distribution of CEO birth dates is similar to the US population. Additionally, the authors find no evidence of a relative-age effect on firm performance.

Contrary to previous findings, there appears to be no relative-age cohort effect for CEOs of major corporations.

Research shows that CEO characteristics shape firm strategy that in turn affects firm performance. Despite previous work that suggests a relative-age effect, the authors provide a more comprehensive data set and better measurement of relative-age within a cohort. The authors find that the relative-age effect does not continue throughout a CEO's career, and therefore, birth dates are not a characteristic that influences firm strategy and performance.

The American Dream and homeownership are sometimes thought of as one and the same. A belief that homeownership is vital to the fabric of a vibrant society has led to government policies that encourage homeownership. This suggests that homeownership and societal well‐being are positively related. However, empirical analysis does not support this positive relationship either within the USA or across countries. This has important policy implications given the research in this special issue that discusses the macro and micro economic consequences of government programs that promote homeownership. Moving forward, we must consider both the private and public benefits of homeownership and also realize that the very concept of what a house is will likely change. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

The analysis examines the relation between the incidence of homeownership and the well‐being (happiness) of a community. The analysis is first performed across the 50 states and then is done on a cross‐section of 26 countries.

The correlation coefficient between home ownership rates and well‐being are negative for both the US and international data. The evidence does not support the belief that homeownership is either necessary or sufficient for societal well‐being.

The paper presents some of the first empirical analysis to examine the relationship between homeownership and societal well‐being. Other studies in this special issue document both public and price costs to owning a home. Taken together, the special issue has important implications for government policies that encourage homeownership.

The analysis considers the use of Benford’s Law as a forensic tool to audit the quality of accounting information reported by banks in emerging market countries. History suggests that lack of financial standards and reporting transparency can ultimately lead to bank failures in these nations. We use the Benford Distribution to analyze the first digits of bank financial statement entries and show the value of accounting standards in producing information of high quality. Benford’s Law maintains that the first digits of an unconstrained, large array of numbers might follow a lognormal pattern. It can be applied, for example, to financial statements issued by banks to infer their data integrity. To illustrate the importance of accounting standards and reporting transparency, the analysis utilizes Russian bank statement data from 2001 to 2011. The main finding is that accounting standards matter. After the Russian Central Bank required all banks to adopt International Financial Reporting Standards in 2004, the financial statement data largely conformed to Benford’s Law. While the Benford distribution can be used to infer the overall quality of bank financial statement data in emerging market countries, it is less effective in spotting troubled banks that commit reporting fraud. One possible reason is that the Benford distribution is scale invariant, and violation of Benford’s Law is a sufficient but not necessary condition for accounting irregularities.

This paper aims to examine the anatomy of a real estate bubble. In the process, the paper identifies three phases of the market's evolution: flips, flops and foreclosures. An examination of the Las Vegas real estate market illustrates the three phases.

The paper examines transaction data from the metropolitan Las Vegas area (Clark County) from 1994 to 2009. The first part of the analysis identifies the three phases of the bubble and is descriptive in nature. This is followed by more formal tests of Granger causality.

In the early part of the sample, a large percentage of transactions are speculative or “flips” causing prices to rapidly increase. Eventually, flipping loses its profitability and over the last three years, there is an increasing number of foreclosures leading to falling prices. The descriptive analysis of the Las Vegas market is augmented with causality tests which show that prices were the driving force behind all three phases in the market's evolution.

Future research might focus on underlying structural inter‐temporal relationships to augment the Granger causality tests.

Analysis shows that price is the driving force behind a bubble and that loan modification programs alone will not solve the current housing crisis.

Government entities might expand neighborhood stabilization programs to affect both demand and supply of homes. Moreover, it might be prudent to include information related to flipping on multiple listing service agreements. Additionally, local governments should be consistent in their record keeping.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to examine the housing bubble using an extensive set of transaction data.

This paper aims to study to what extent an insurance based on a house price index provides equity protection for homeowners.

The paper uses a novel dataset of all housing market transactions in the metropolitan area of Melbourne 1990‐2006, to construct repeated sales indices of various temporal spatial aggregation. These indices are used to discuss the efficiency of index‐based insurance schemes. The paper also considers efficiency under different specifications of legitimate claims.

It is found that the payout efficiency is surprisingly stable (around 50 percent) for all temporal spatial aggregations. A neighborhood index outperforms the metropolitan index with respect to target efficiency (the probability of payout given a loss). The introduction of maturity times, say legitimate claim five years after purchase, does improve efficiency somewhat. However, the idiosyncratic component of housing market transactions remains high, and the insurance probably unattractive from a homeowner perspective.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first time an index‐based insurance scheme is analyzed using real‐market transactions.

This paper seeks to examine the role that regulation and regulatory agencies played in the creating of the subprime mortgage market, and the subsequent crash of the mortgage market. The paper has two goals. First, it seeks to document the degree to which the US housing markets, and the US housing finance market, were regulated prior to the crash. Second, it seeks to show that regulatory bodies set policies which created both incentives and explicit requirements for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as depository institutions, to enter the subprime market.

The paper examines the regulatory environment of the subprime market. It uses regulatory filings and other documents as primary sources.

The popular perception that the subprime mortgage market arose because housing finance was largely unregulated is incorrect. In point of fact, the housing finance market was very heavily regulated. Indeed, the paper shows that the creation of the subprime market was a formal goal of the federal government, and that federal regulatory agencies explicitly required participation by the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs).

The paper's primary implication is that incentive conflicts within the US housing finance system significantly contributed to the mortgage crisis. These incentive conflicts were not just within private firms, but also extend to the GSEs and regulatory agencies. Regulatory agencies not only failed to anticipate the crisis; they actively encouraged the policies which created it. As a result, the primary focus of reform efforts should be on identifying and eliminating such conflicts.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the changing role of housing wealth from an investment vehicle to a welfare resource. It also considers the implications of economic prosperity and decline in the UK on homeowners, intentions of equity withdrawal, and the consequences of managing household budgets.

The paper takes the form of a quantitative longitudinal analysis of national data and panel survey, including random effects logistic regression model.

Housing wealth is increasingly being used as a financial safety net across the life course. Homeowners are equally likely to have engaged in equity‐borrowing episodes during periods of economic prosperity as they are during periods of decline; particularly, lone parents with non‐dependent children and unemployed people. Housing tends to be used as a last resort once other forms of credit have been exhausted.

There are data constraints; equity withdrawal can only be calculated from 1994 and the latest wave of data available is 2008. The research is not therefore able to consider the full extent of the consequences of the current recession, however, it does provide an indication of the problems that may emerge.

Social implications arise from the concentration of resources into housing wealth; homeowners may suffer through having increased debt and there are implications for financial and sustainable welfare policy where home ownership is positioned as a nation's welfare resource.

The paper draws upon the author's recent work (in collaboration with others) which offers insights into the motivations for equity borrowing. This paper offers an original contribution through presenting empirical evidence on the effect of economic prosperity and economic decline on household behaviour, and adds new insights in respect of the implications for households who rely on housing wealth in the context of the current recession.

Switzerland boasts arguably the highest density of green properties in the world. In 2008, more than 15 percent of total new construction received the Swiss energy building label Minergie. The spatial distribution of these green buildings, however, is highly heterogeneous. In some regions, more than half of the new dwellings are built according to the Swiss green building standard. In others, this share is still negligible. The purpose of this paper is to identify the determinants of the distribution of green housing.

For 2,571 Swiss municipalities, the author computes the green building share of new residential buildings. Data are collected for several variables measuring demographic, geographic, social, cultural, and political aspects that – according to the authors' hypothesis – may influence green building activity. Count regression is used to estimate the impact of these variables on the demand for green buildings.

It is found that differences in income levels and cultural affiliation between Swiss municipalities account for the largest part of the variation in green building activity. The impact of homeowners' stance on environmentalism is highly significant but less important. Government subsidies do not seem to trigger additional green housing activity.

The paper presents one of the first empirical analyses regarding the determinants of green building activity. Thanks to a comprehensive dataset, the authors are able to investigate the impact of potential drivers of “green housing” construction activity. The regional variation in governmental incentives is analysed and delivers valuable insight for policymakers interested in spurring the development of green buildings.