Igor Livshits

Economic Advisor and Economist

igor.livshits@phil.frb.org

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Areas of Expertise

Igor Livshits, economic advisor and economist, specializes in consumer debt and bankruptcy, political economy, and human capital at the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

Featured Work

Consumer Credit

Working Paper

Not Cashing In on Cashing Out: An Analysis of Low Cash-Out Refinance Rates

Mallick Hossain,
Igor Livshits &
Collin Wardius

March 2023

WP 23-04 – More than half of borrowers who have both home equity and high-interest loans fail to reduce their overall debt burden by folding this high-interest debt into a lower-interest mortgage when they undertake a mortgage refinance.

Macroeconomics

Working Paper

Polarized Contributions but Convergent Agendas

September 2022

WP 22-29 – The political process in the United States appears to be highly polarized: Data show that the political positions of legislators have diverged substantially, while the largest campaign contributions come from the most extreme donor groups and are directed to the most extreme candidates.

Consumer Credit

Working Paper

Consumer Credit with Over-Optimistic Borrowers

Florian Exler,
Igor Livshits,
James MacGee &
Michèle Tertilt

December 2021

WP 21-42 – Do cognitive biases call for regulation to limit the use of credit? We incorporate over-optimistic and rational borrowers into an incomplete markets model with consumer bankruptcy.

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