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Dr. Zhong Yi Tong is a senior financial economist in the Economic and Policy Analysis Department at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Prior to joining the OCC in 2011, he served as a senior market economist at the Office of Thrift Supervision, Chief Economist at Republic Mortgage Insurance Co., Director of Housing Economics & Finance and Chairman of the Research Review Committee at the Fannie Mae Foundation, and a faculty member of East China Normal University. He also served as an associate editor of the Journal of Housing Research, associate editor of Housing Policy Debate, and a member of the Board of Directors at American Real Estate Society.
Dr. Tong has worked on a broad range of areas, including housing market dynamics, home price, mobility, mortgage finance, mortgage insurance, mortgage default and credit loss, home equity loans and lines of credit, GSE reform and capital rules, public policies related to housing and mortgage finance, policy impact assessment techniques, national bank stress test, and microfinance. He is one of the two co-editors of the book titled Replicating Microfinance in the United States (published by Woodrow Wilson Center Press in 2002 and distributed worldwide by Johns Hopkins University Press). His researches not only appeared in peer-reviewed journals and government reports but also received media attention. His 2000 study on home price segmentation by property type was featured in multiple newspapers and magazines including a front-page article in the Real Estate section of the Washington Post. After winning two national awards, his 2003 study on the impact of Washington DC’s first-time homebuyer tax credit was released as a Fannie Mae Foundation Special Report in 2005, featured in the Washington Post, and quoted as the only creditable evidence in the congressional testimonies in 2008 in support of creating the national first-time homebuyer tax credit program that helped rescue a collapsed housing market during the Great Recession in the U.S.
Dr. Tong holds a Ph.D. in Policy Studies from the University of Maryland at College Park, specializing in real estate economics and public finance; a Master of Public Policy from the University of Northern Iowa, specializing in quantitative techniques and housing policy; and a Bachelor of Law from East China Normal University in Shanghai.