Information and credit cycles: Causes and consequences of financial instability

This thesis consists of an introductory chapter and three self-contained essays that apply insights from the microeconomic theory of corporate finance in a macroeconomic setting in order to explain and understand various market failures that were at the roots of the global financial crisis of 2007–2009. In particular, I study various forms of incomplete information in the credit market, and their implications on financial stability and on business cycles in the aggregate economy. I also seek to understand how monetary and macroprudential policies can be used to maintain financial stability, and how these two policies interact.