The Inefficiency of Clearing Mandates
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, attention has turned to reducing systemic risk in the derivatives markets. Much of this attention has focused on counterparty risk in the over-the-counter [...]
The political lessons of Depression-era banking reform
The banking legislation of the 1930s took very little time to pass, was unusually comprehensive, and unusually responsive to public opinion. Ironically, the primary motivations for the main bank regulatory [...]
Competitive Lending with Partial Knowledge of Loan Repayment
We study a competitive credit market in which lenders with partial knowledge of loan repayment use one of three decision criteria - maximization of expected utility, maximin, or minimax regret [...]
Global retail lending in the aftermath of the US financial crisis: Distinguishing between supply and demand effects
This paper examines the broader effects of the US financial crisis on global lending to retail customers. In particular we examine retail bank lending in Germany using a unique data [...]
Anatomy of the Beginning of the Housing Boom: U.S. Neighborhoods and Metropolitan Areas, 1993-2009
We provide novel estimates of the timing, magnitudes, and potential determinants of the start of the last housing boom across American neighborhoods and metropolitan areas (MSAs) using a rich new [...]
The Size of the U.S. Finance Industry: A Puzzle?
I use the neo-classical growth model to study financial intermediation in the U.S. over the past 130 years. I measure the cost of financial intermediation on the one hand, and [...]
The Mystery of Zero-Leverage Firms
This paper documents the puzzling evidence that a substantial number of large public non-financial US firms follow a zero-debt policy. Over the 1962-2009 period, on average 10.2% of such firms [...]
Reassessing the Impact of Finance on Growth
This paper investigates how financial development affects aggregate productivity growth. Based on a sample of developed and emerging economies, we first show that the level of financial development is good [...]
Regulation, Market Structure, and Role of the Credit Rating Agencies
During the financial crisis of 2008, the financial markets would have been better served if the credit rating agency industry had been more competitive. We present evidence that suggests the [...]
Assessing the Cost of Financial Regulation
This study assesses the overall impact on credit of the financial regulatory reforms in Europe, Japan, and the United States. Long-term cost estimates are provided for Basel III capital and [...]