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Dr. David Nickerson

DepartmentReal Estate Management
EducationBA (Hons.), MA, PhD
OfficeTRS 2-101
Phone416-979-5000, ext. 554582

Overview

The focus of Dr. Nickerson’s research iincludes the economics of natural disasters,  competition and efficiency in secondary financial markets, lending discriimination, contingent debt valuation and renegotiation, and sustainable communities and property risk.  Dr. Nickerson’s current teaching is in real estate finance and sustainable development..

Prior to his appointment at Ryerson, Dr Nickerson was a Senior Financial Economist in the Research Office of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the inaugural Bennett Chair in the Heller College of Business at Roosevelt University and Deputy Chief Economist at Freddie Mac.  He has been a professor of economics and finance at Duke University, Colorado State University, American University, the University of British Columbia and the University of Canterbury, and has also served as Senior Economist at the Office of Thrift Supervision and the United States Treasury, a Research Scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks of Kansas City and St. Louis, a consultant to the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa and a Special Advisor to the national governments of Vietnam and the People’s Republic of China.  He is also a consultant in financial markets at NERA in New York and Washington, D.C.

Dr Nickerson is currently the Editor-in-Chief of the refereed journal International Finance and Banking,, a member of the board of editors of the SN Journal of Economics and Business and a Guest Editor of a special issue on risk and insurance in the Journal of Risk and Financial Management. 

Dr. Nickerson holds a PhD in economics from Northwestern University (1982).

The focus of Dr. Nickerson’s research iincludes the economics of natural disasters,  competition and efficiency in secondary financial markets, lending discriimination, contingent debt valuation and renegotiation, urban property risk, and sustainable community development. Dr. Nickerson’s teaching activities are in the areas of real estate finance and sustainable real estate.

Books and Monographs
The Vancouver Stock Exchange:  Its Contribution to the Economy of British Columbia,  (with M. Courchane), Ministry of Finance, Government of British Columbia  Publications Office, (1989).   
Doi Moi and Productivity in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam:  Studies of Four Economic  Sectors(ed.) Institute of Economics, National Centre for the Social Sciences , Hanoi (1994)
Financial Markets in Economic Development and Transition, (with D. Schydlowski and L. Sawers),  World Scientific Press, London and Singapore,  (2000)
Refereed Journal Publications    
 
“Intertemporal Incentive Allocation in Simple Hierarchies,” (with Todd Sandler), Mathematical Social Sciences, Summer 1984, 33-57.
“Systematic Monetary Neutrality in Models with a Disequilibrium Price Level,” Economics Letters,January 1984, 1-8.
“Optimal Monetary Policy with a Flexible Price-Setting Rule,” Kredit und Kapital, Heft 3, Spring 1985, 289-298.
“A Theorem on Policy Neutrality,” European Economic Review, August 1985, 331-345.
“Monetary Neutrality and Optimality in Equilibrium Models with a Wealth Effect,” Canadian Journal of  Economics, August 1987, 612-624.
“Monetary Optimality with Symmetric Partial Information,” (with Marsha Courchane), International Journal of Economics, Winter 1988, 57-73.
“Self-Insurance Against Natural Disasters,” (with Tracy Lewis), Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, May 1989, 209-223;  reprinted in Kunreuther, H. and A. Rose (eds), The Economics of Natural Hazards (International Library of Critical Writings in Economics), Edward    Elgar Publishing, 2004.
“Optimal Futures Market and Buffer Stock Strategies for Commodity Price Stabilization,”  (with Marsha   Courchane), Selected Papers of the Fourth International Futures Conference and Research Seminar,  (ed. Lloyd Besant),  Canadian Futures Institute, Toronto, 1990, 10-42.
“Monetary Neutrality and Optimality in Equilibrium Models with Private Information and a Single  Asset,” Economic Studies Quarterly, August 1991, 1-27.
“Exchange Rate Uncertainty and Precommitment in Symmetric Duopoly:  A New Theory of Multinational   Firms,”  (with S. Khoury and V. Sadanand), Recent Developments in International Banking and Finance, volume 4, Summer 1991, 12-36. 
“Monopoly Investment, Pricing and Production under Intertemporal Demand Uncertainty,(with S. Reynolds), Australian Economic Papers,  Fall 1995.
“Strategic Delay and Endogenous Offers in Bargaining Games with Private Information,”(with A. Sadanand and V. Sadanand), Journal of Economics (Zeitschrift fur   Nationalokonomie), Winter 1994/95, v. 60, no. 4, pp. 125-54.
“Governance and Efficiency in Emerging Financial Markets,” Journal of International Trade and Economic Development, December 1995, pp. 261-282.
“Endogenous Competition and Strategic Foreign Production,” (with V. Sadanand), Canadian Journal of Economics, April 1996, pp. 19-26. 
“Lending Discrimination Resulting from Overage Practices,” (with M. Courchane), Journal of Financial  Services Research,  February/April 1997,  pp. 133-152.
“Estimation and Evaluation of Loan Discrimination -- An Informational Approach,” (with M. Courchaneand Amos Golan),  Journal of Housing Research, Volume 11, Issue 1, Spring  2000, pp. 67-90
“Strategic Real Options and Endogenous Competition in Electronic Banking,” (with M. Courchane and V. Sadanand),  Control Applications of Optimization  7(1)  2000, 104-109  
“Public Income Transfers and Private Insurance Against Environmental Disasters,” Proceedings of the Risk Theory Society 2000, (ed. R.Butler), S. S. Huebner Foundation and American Risk and Insurance Association, July 2000
“Lessons Learned:  Application of Statistical Techniques to Fair Lending Compliance Examinations,”  (with M. Courchane and D. Nebhut), Journal of Housing Research,Volume 11, Issue 2,  Fall, 2000, pp. 277-95
“Mortgage Contracts, Strategic Options and Stochastic Collateral,” (with R. Jones), Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Volume 24, Issue 1, January, 2002, pp. 35-58.    
“Investment in Internet Banking as a Real Option:  Theory and Tests,” (with R. Sullivan) Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Vol 12, 4-5, December 2003, 347-363.
“Regulating Financial Markets:  Assessing Neoclassical and Institutionalist Views,” (with R. Phillips), Journal of Economic Issues, Summer 2003.
“Crime and Residential Mortgage Default:  An Empirical Analysis,” (with R. Feinberg),  Applied Economics Letters, April 2004, pp.114-118  
“Assessing Systemic Risk Exposure from Housing GSEs and Banks under Alternative Approaches for Capital Adequacy,” (with P. Kupiec),  Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Volume 28(2), 2005, 123-45.
“Insurers Are Not Banks:  Assessing Liquidity, Efficiency and Solvency Risk,”  (with P. Kupiec), Geneva Papers on Risk and Insurance, Fall 2006.
“Private Investment, Public Aid and Endogenous Divergence in the Evolution of Urban Neighborhoods” (with L. Arvan), Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics,  January/February 2007
“Dynamic Monitoring of Financial Intermediaries with Subordinated Debt,” (with G. Gonzalez-Rivera), Journal of Risk Finance, Vol 9, No. 5, 2008
“Underwriting Risk, Stabilizing Regulations and Property-Liability Insurance Volatility,” (with A. M. B. Hogan), Control Applications of Optimization,  23(1),  2010.
“Political Economy of Presidential Disaster Declarations and Federal Disaster Assistance,” (with T. Husted), Public Finance Review, vol 42(1), January 2014, 35-57.
“Strategic Selection and Asset Price Risk in Mortgage Markets,” Journal of Economic Research and Studies, Vol. 11(10), 2016,  123-141  (https://doi.org/10.5514/jers.v11n10p141)
“Credit Rationing and Rational Lending Discrimination,”  International Review of Economics & Finance, Vol. 8(10),  2016,  140-158   (https://doi.org/10.5539/ijef.v8n10p140)
“Asset Price Volatility and Efficient Selection in Credit Market Equilibrium,” International Journal of Business and Finance Research, Vol. 10(4), 2017, 91-101   (https://www.theibfr.com/download/IJBFR/2016-ijbfr/ijbfr_v10n4_2016/IJBFR-V10N4-2016-8.pdf)
Property Risk, Foreclosure Costs and Credit Discrimination,”  (with D. Scofield),  International Finance and Banking, Vol. 4(1), 2017,  121-144.  (https://doi.org/10.5296/ifb.v4i1.10089)
“Collateral Risk and Demographic Discrimination in Mortgage Market Equilibria,” (with R. Jones),  Review of Economics and Finance, Vol. 9(3) , 2018,  13-28.   (www.bapress.ca/ref/ref-article/1923-7529-2017-03-13-16.pdf)
“Insurance Cycles, Spanning and Regulation,” (with A. Hogan),  Journal of Economics and Public Finance, Vol 5(4), 2019, 465-472.   (https://doi.org/10.22158/jepf.v5n4p465 
“Disaster Risk, Moral Hazard and Public Policy,” (with T. Husted), Natural Hazards Science, Oxford Research Encyclopedias, October 2020, 1-43.   (https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389407.013.195)
“Private Support for Public Disaster Aid,” Journal of Risk and Financial Management, June 2021, p 14-27 (https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm1406024)
“Credit Risk, Regulatory Costs and Lending Discrimination in Efficient Mortgage Markets,” Journal of Risk and Financial Management, v. 15(4), July 2022 1-17. (https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm15050197) 

“Governors and Electoal Hazard in the Allocation of Federal Disaster Aid,” (with T. Husted), Southern Economic Journal v.89(2), October 2022  522-539 (https://doi.org/10.1002/soej.12603

“Natural Disasters and Sustainability: Can Private Capital Finance Community Recovery?” Annals of  Social Science and Management Studies, v.8(1), December 2022 1-8. (https://doi.org/10.19080/ASM_2022.08.555728) 
 
Book Chapters, Reviews and Non-refereed Journal Publications
“Inventory Investment in the Current Business Cycle,” Financial Letters, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, October 1985.
 “Money Demand and Monetary Policy,”  by Douglas Fisher (book review) Journal of Economic Literature , vol. 30, No. 1, March 1992, pp.197 - 199.
“Economic Development and Industrial Restructuring in Vietnam:  A Summary of  Macroeconomic Performance and Comments on Conference Papers,”  in  Proceedings of the First  IDRC  Conference on Vietnamese Economic Restructuring ,  I.D.R.C., Singapore, 1993.
“Ensuring Failure:  Financial System Stability and Deposit Insurance in Canada,” by J. Carr, F. Mathewson and N. Quigley, (book review),  Canadian Public Policy,  December 1995.
“Financial Deja Vu:  The Farm Credit System’s Past Woes Could Strike the Federal Home Loan Bank System,” (with R. Phillips), Regulation, (Cato Institute), Spring 2002, 36-41.
“Restructuring, Stabilizing and Modernizing the New Russia: a Review,” by Paul J. Welfens, and E. Gavrilenkov,  Journal of International Trade and Economic Development2005.
“The Federal Home Loan Bank System and the Farm Credit System:  Historical Parallels and Implications for Systemic Risk,” in Gup, B. (ed), Too Big to Fail:  Policies and Practices in Government Bailouts, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007.
“Property-Casualty Insurance Markets: Regulation, Risk and Volatility” (with R. Phillips), Network Financial Institute Annual, 2012
 
 
Practitioner and Professional Publications
“Adverse Selection and Prior Arrest History in Military Recruiting,”  (with D. Gregory and H. Griffis),  CRM Papers 96-13, November 1996, Center for Naval Analyses, Alexandria, Virginia
“Defined-Contribution and Defined-Benefit Pension Plans for Military Retirement,”   CIM Papers 97-06, February 1997, Center for Naval Analyses, Alexandria, Virginia.
“Predicting Re-enlistment, Separation and Extension Rates in Naval Manpower Planning,”   CAB Papers  September 1998, Center for Naval Analyses, Alexandria, Virginia.
“Future Force Formulation:  Combined Conditional and Multinomial Logit Estimation of the Effects of the Targeted Enlistment Bonus, 1994-1997,”CAB Papers,  August 2000, Center for Naval Analyses, Alexandria Virginia.
“An International Comparison of  Residential Mortgages:  Equity, Fixed Rates, Long Maturities and Prepayment,” (Policy  Briefings SeriesOffice of the Chief Economist, Freddie Mac, 2003)
“Comparing Domestic and Foreign Housing Markets:  Tenure Choice, Homeownership Rates, Public Subsidies and Relative Competition and Concentration between Domestic and Foreign Brokerage Services and Mortgage Lenders,” (Policy  Briefings SeriesOffice of the Chief Economist, Freddie Mac, 2004)
“Measuring  Competition and Efficiency among  Financial Market-Makers: The Case of the Housing GSEs,”  (Policy  Briefings SeriesOffice of the Chief Economist, Freddie Mac, 2005)
Selected Discussion Papers
Mortgage Markets, Valuation and Regulation
“Endogenous Competition, Efficiency and the Optimal Structure of Secondary Mortgage Markets”  “Small Business Investment in Urban Neighborhoods:  Effects of Strategic Default and Foreclosure Options on Commercial Mortgage Lending”
Property and Community Risk, Sustainability, Natural Disasters and Public Aid
“Implementation and Limited Liability in Environmental Disasters::  an Agency Model of Public Aid Transwers” (with L. Arvan), “Community Networks and the Decision to Insure Against Environmental Harm” Estimating the Likelihood of Environmental Catastrophes:  the Relative Efficiency of Private versus Public Announcements of Disaster Forecasts”
Intermediated Financial Markets and Applications to Mortgages and Property Insurance“Does Zero-Beta Accurately Measure Catastrophe Bond Risk?” (with A.M.B. Hogan)“Flexibility and Strategy for Small Businesses:  Measuring Entry Value as a Real Option” “Residential Housing Insurance and Reinsurance:  Efficiency, Solvency Risk and Optimal Market Structure”
Contingent Valuation:  Applications to Real Assets “Privatizing the Secondary Mortgage Market and the Use of Insider Information,” (with Jim Wilcox) “Uncertainty, Cost-Benefit Analysis and Contingent Claims Valuation:  An Empirical Application to Urban Unemployment and the National Manpower Training Act,” with R Lerman (presented at Annual APPAM Meetings) “Applications of Contingent Asset Valuation and Real Options to Military Procurement Decisions:  Optimal Replacement vs Maintenance Policies for a Seasoned Weapons System,” (Invited Presentation to the Rand Corporation)   “Residential Housing Insurance and Reinsurance:  Efficiency, Solvency Risk and Optimal Market Structure”
Selected Research Projects in Progress
“Could Homeowner Assistance Programs Trigger Endogenous Waves of Mortgage Default?”
“Unregulated Externalities and the Credit Risk of Mortgage Debt Issues with Joint and Several Liability”
“Catastrophes and the Effects of Public Recovery Aid on Debtholders of  Property Development in At-Risk Communities:”
“Alternative Criteria to Economic Efficiency: Law and the Causation of Harm Doctrine”
“The Adverse Possession Doctrine in Property Law:  Using Option-Pricing to Estimate Damages
Selected Conference and Seminar Presentations  (2014 – 2024)

80th Midwest Political Science Association Conference (2024) 

35th  Global Conference on Business and Finance (2024)

4th Global Experts Conference on Applied Science, Engineering and Technology (Plenary Speaker) 

University of Colorado Environmental and Resource Economics Conference

University College London, Bartlett School, Economics and Finance Department 

78th Midwest Political Science Association Conference 

 30th Annual Australasian Finance and Banking Conference

 

Western Risk and Insurance Association Annual Conference

American Risk and Insurance Association Annual Meetings

Southern Risk and Insurance Association Annual Meeting

Annual Meeting of the Southern Finance Association 

ASSA Annual Meetings (American Economic Association)

AREUEA Annual International Conference 

Otago University, School of B usiness, Department of Finance

Bank of England Conference on Systemic Risk

American Finance Association Annual Meetings

University of Minnesota,  Carlson School of Management

Annual Maastricht-Cambridge International Symposium on Real Estate Finance and Investment, National Academy of Sciences Colloquium on Environmental Change and Social Policy

University of Reading, Henley School of Business

Bournemouth University, School of Management

Course code Course title
FIN 707
Real Estate Finance
REM 420 Sustainable Development

Appointment to editorial board of new economics journal (Global Journal of Economics, Business and Management) (April)

Research Funding
Duke University Faculty Research Grant
UBC-SSHRC Research Grant
UBC-HSS Research Grant
Research Grant, Centre for International Business Studies Canada
SSHRC Travel Grants for International Conference
NSF Research Grant (secondary investigator)
University Research Award, American University
U.S. Mortgage Bankers Association Research Grant
Bennett Foundation Research Grant
Memberships in Professional Societies
American Economics Association
American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association
Asian Real Estate Society
Canadian Economics Association
Financial Intermediation Research Society
International Insurance Foundation
Risk Theory Society