Gene Woo Kang

Ph.D. Candidate in Finance at UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business

Former Sr. Research Assistant at Division of Financial Stability, Federal Reserve Board

Welcome! I am a finance PhD student at UC Berkeley Haas. My research interests lie in Banking, Corporate Finance, and Household Finance. Specifically, I am focused on examining the impact of technological advances in the banking sector, competition between banks and shadow banks in the mortgage market, the transmission of shocks in financial markets, and firms' choices of debt types.

Email: gene_kang@haas.berkeley.edu

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Research

Policy Notes

"Household and Business Debt: A Fire-Sale Risk Analysis," (with Cai, F., Kara, G., Swem, N., and Zikes, F.), FEDS Notes, 2021. - Full Text / Podcast (NotebookLM)

Abstract: As of year-end 2019, nonfinancial business debt (BD) and household debt (HD) were at similar levels, yet Federal Reserve Financial Stability Report suggested that BD posed greater risks to financial stability than HD. We look through the lens of fire-sale risks to show why nonfinancial BD is more concerning for financial stability. We examine BD and HD according to their holder types, credit quality, and market liquidity features, and we highlight the areas of greatest concern for fire sales.

"Bank Borrowings by Asset Managers: Evidence from US Open-End Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds" (as lead RA; with Cai, F., and Shin, C.), FEDS Notes, 2021. - Full Text

Abstract: In this note, we look into investment funds' access to and usage of bank credit, based on a new dataset on credit line (and other types of loan) extension by top bank holding companies to open-end mutual funds and ETFs in the United States. We find that the aggregate amount of bank lending to open-end funds and ETFs was small and greatly fluctuated across time. Bank credit, particularly in the form of credit lines, has offered funds a flexible liquidity source from which they can draw down cash in times of excessive fund outflows, such as during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. In particular, funds that hold relatively more illiquid assets, such as bank loan funds, are more reliant on bank credit lines.

Work in Progress

"Which Branches Survive? Feature-Level Digital Adoption and Branch-Level Product Specialization"

"Local Housing Market Experiences and Homeownership Decisions," (with Junru Lyu and Sharath Sonti)

"The Role of Information Disclosure Cost in Firms' Choice on Debt Type"

"Digital Banking in the United States: New Facts from App-level Data," (with Matteo Benetton)

"Bank and Non-bank Specialization in the Mortgage Market," (with Matteo Benetton)

"Fintech Lending in Mortgage Market and Monetary Policy Transmission," (with Hofmann, B., and Kara, G.).

-Slides available upon request

Description: Using the confidential Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (cHMDA) data, we examine how mortgage lenders, such as conventional banks and fintech lenders, react to the monetary policy (MP) shocks in terms of the mortgage origination.

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