This dissertation consists of three essays that uncover the origins of market frictions and their implications for the functioning of the global foreign exchange (FX) market. The first research paper speaks to the hegemony of the US dollar in FX trading. Over 85% of all FX transactions involve...

This paper examines the relative information shares of the Bund, i.e. the ten-year Euro bondfuture contract on German sovereign debt, versus two futures with shorter maturity. We findthat the Bund is most important but does not dominate price discovery. The other contractsalso have relevant –...

The development of Asian foreign exchange markets has progressed appreciably in recent years. Data from the BIS Triennial Central Bank Survey indicate that the turnover of Asian currencies rose sharply between 2004 and 2007, financial institutions became more important customers, and the...

The main goal of this paper is to present various descriptive statistics on demographic information, investment strategy, portfolio positions, and trading activity.

We analyse the effect of transfer pricing regulations on trade ows. We base our estimation on a panel gravity model, where the transfer pricing regulations are modeled as trade costs. To abstract from any aggregate demand shocks, we focus on intermediate goods in the car industry. Our results...

This paper introduces a new technique to infer the risk-neutral probability distribution of an asset from the prices of options on this asset. The technique is based on using the trading volume of each option as a proxy of the informativeness of the option. Not requiring the implied probability...

A standard repurchase agreement between two counterparties is considered to examinethe endogenous choice of collateral assets, the feasibility of secured lending, and welfare implications of the central bank’s collateral framework. As an important innovation, we allow for two-sided...