This paper contrasts individual liability lending with and without groups to joint liability lending. By doing so, we shed light on an apparent shift away from joint liability lending towards individual liability lending by some microfinance institutions First we show that individual lending...

Lack of access to finance is often cited as a key reason why poor people remain poor. This paper uses data on the Indian rural branch expansion program to provide empirial evidence on this issue. Between 1977 and 1990, the Indian Central Bank mandated that a commercial bank can open a branch in...

This paper studies corporate risk management in a context with financial constraints and imperfect competition on the product market. We show that the interactions between firms heavily affect their hedging demand. As a general rule, the firms’ hedging demand decreases with the correlation...

Allowing for a richer information structure than usual, we show that rational traders’ calculation with short-term price fluctuations may heavily influence their behaviour even if the interim price is not influenced by non-rational agents i.e. there is no noise trader risk. Instead, traders...

This paper studies a dynamic model of crises with timing frictions that combines the main aspects of Morris and Shin (1998) and Frankel and Pauzner (2000). The usual arguments for existence and uniqueness of equilibrium cannot be applied. It is shown that the model has a unique equilibrium...

We develop a search-based model of asset trading, in which investors of different horizons can invest in two identical assets. The asset markets are partially segmented: buyers can search for only one asset, but can decide which one. We show that there exists a "clientele" equilibrium where one...

This paper shows that, with (partial) irreversibility, higher uncertainty reduces the impact effect of demand shocks on investment. Uncertainty increases real option values making firms more cautious when investing or disinvesting. This is confirmed both numerically for a model with a rich mix...

Uncertainty appears to vary strongly over time, temporarily rising by up to 200% around major shocks like the Cuban Missile crisis, the assassination of JFK and 9/11. This paper offers the first structural framework to analyze uncertainty shocks. I build a model with a time varying second...

It is often argued that asset prices exhibit patterns incompatible with the behaviour of rational, optimizing agents. This paper proposes a rational framework which generates asset prices which appear irrational. This is accomplished by studying rational expectations equilibria in the presence...

We propose a model in which assets with identical cash flows can trade at different prices. Agents enter into an infinite-horizon, steady-state market to establish long or short positions. Both the spot and the asset-lending market operate through search. Short-sellers can endogenously...