What are the benefits provided by a payment system? What are the tradeoffs in public versus private payment systems and in restricted versus open payments arrangements? Modern payment systems encompass a variety of institutional designs with varying degrees of counterparty protection. We develop...

When firms use bank oans and trade credit,bankruptcy rules can magnify aggregate fluctuations.A priori,a rule where banks are senior is not appropriate to dampen fluctuations.It might force trade creditors into bankruptcy by triggering a ‘domino e ffect ’-when firms go bust because...