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This article presents an empirical analysis of mortgage innovation as a vehicle to enable renters, especially those from traditionally underserved populations, to realize homeownership. It examines the financial and underwriting criteria of a typology of mortgage products, from those adhering to historical standards to some of today's most liberal loans, and develops synthetic models to account for all direct purchase costs. These models are calibrated using 1995 data on renter demographic and financial characteristics from the Survey of Income and Program Participation.Compared with historical mortgages, today's more innovative loans increase the number of renters who could hypothetically qualify for homeownership by at least a million and expand potential home-buying capacity by $300 billion. Certain policies could greatly expand the potential gains. Nevertheless, even the most aggressive innovations can play only a limited role in efforts to deliver the material benefits of homeownership to underserved populations.

The idea that the United States is—and should be—an “entrepreneurial society” is now a popular notion. Entrepreneurs have become celebrities and many celebrities become entrepreneurs. It is easy to connect the political, economic, and social disruptions to the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, but changes of this magnitude are the offspring of many parents. This paper highlights someone who has gone unnoticed: Tony Manero, the white-suited dancer brought to life by John Travolta in the film Saturday Night Fever (1977). SNF is famous for its white working-class decadence and disco dancing, but re-watching the film today, one is struck by Tony’s entrepreneurial personality. A Schumpeterian analysis shows the protagonist as a proto-entrepreneur and the film as an early endorsement of the promise of entrepreneurship.

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