Jan Ondrich

Jan Ondrich is a professor of economics and a senior research associate in the Center for Policy Research. He concentrates his research on applying discrete choice models and duration models to topics in labor economics, aging, demography, and urban and real estate economics.

His labor economics research examines 1) the effect of liberalized maternity leave laws in Germany on the length of leave taken by German mothers; and 2) the effect of civil conflict on female labor force outcomes in Peru. His research on aging includes 1) the analysis of the effect of the provision of community-based long-term services in deterring nursing home entry; and 2) disability in later life. His work in demography examines the effect of the introduction of divorce in Chile on fertility. This work is forthcoming in the Review of Economics of the Household. 

Some of Ondrich's work in urban economics deals with audit methodology in relation to housing discrimination. He was a senior econometrician for the 1989 HUD-sponsored Housing Discrimination Study and has contributed to several studies using the HDS data. One of the papers based on audit data, co-authored with Alex Stricker and John Yinger and published in the Southern Economic Journal, applies fixed-effect logit estimation to black and Hispanic sales audits.

A study written together with Stephen Ross and John Yinger and published in the Journal of Urban Economics, presents a new method for measuring the extent of discrimination. A second study with Ross and Yinger examines how the characteristics of available housing affect housing discrimination. This study was published in the Review of Economics and Statistics.

Ondrich has also received a grant from Upjohn to study the determinants of the location decision for foreign direct investment in the United States. More recently, he has worked with Paul Liu and Mary Lovely on the location of foreign direct investment in China.

Ondrich’s work in real estate economics, co-authored with James Follain and Gyan Sinha and published in the Journal of Urban Economics, examines the effect of the prepayment option value on the prepayment rate of Freddie Mac Plan A mortgages; the results indicated that the standard models that suggest prepayment would occur quickly for “in-the-money” options are incorrect.

Finally, work with Wenyi Huang, published in the Journal of Housing Research, examines the determinants of prepayment and default for FHA-insured multifamily mortgages in a simultaneous econometric analysis. His current research with Ran An examines default and prepayment in the residential mortgage market. He is also analyzing the structure of trading in stock exchanges. 

Ondrich received a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 1983.  

Maternity leave legislation, racial discrimination in housing and business loans, latent trajectory models

Principal Investigator. "How Did the 2007-2008 Housing Bust Affect Retirement Decisions?” Funded by the Center for Aging and Policy Studies Pilot Project Program Grant. 2013-2014.

Principal Investigator. “How Much Do Changes in Housing Wealth Influence the Decision to Retire?” Funded by the BC/SSA. 2011-2012.

Principal Investigator. “End of Life Trajectories: A Prospective Model.” Funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Grant. 2009-2012. 

Selected Papers

Do Minority and Woman Entrepreneurs Face Discrimination in Credit Markets?  Improved Estimates Using Matching Methods, Working Paper. Yue Hu, Long Liu, Jan Ondrich, and John Yinger

How Sensitive is Foreign Direct Investment in China to Wage Differences? Skill Intensity, Product Market Competition, and Networks, Working Paper. Xuepeng Liu, Mary Lovely, and Jan Ondrich

Cox-McFadden Semiparametric Estimation for a Class of  Clustered Proportional Hazards, Working Paper. Jan Ondrich

“The Location Decisions of Foreign Investors in China: Untangling the Effect of Wages Using a Control Function Approach.” 2010. Review of Economics and Statistics 92(1):160-166. Xuepeng Liu, Mary Lovely, and Jan Ondrich

“Changes in Rental Housing Discrimination since 1989. ” 2008. Cityscape 10(2):301-330. Seok Joon Choi, Jan Ondrich, and John Yinger

“The Determinants of Teacher Attrition in Upstate New York.” 2008. Public Finance Review 36:112-44. Ondrich, Jan, Emily Pas, and John Yinger

“Now You See It, Now You Don’t: Why Do Real Estate Agents Withhold Houses from Black Customers?” 2003. Review of Economics and Statistics, 85(4): 854-873. Ondrich, Jan, Stephen Ross, and John Yinger

"The Liberalization of Maternity Leave Policy and the Return to Work after Childbirth in Germany." 2003. Review of Economics of the Household, 1(1): 77-110. Ondrich, Jan, Katharina K. Spiess, Qing Yang, and Gert G. Wagner