We study product innovation and imitation in the market of corporate underwriting with a dynamic model where client switching costs and the bankers’ expertise in deal structuring characterize the life cycle of a security. While the clientele loyalty allows positive rent extraction, the superior...

This paper studies the impact of cash constraints on equilibrium research intensities in a patent race between a current owner of the “state of the art” technology (the incumbent) and entrants. We develop a simple model, where players need to raise funds from imperfectly informed creditors to...

We investigate the theoretical and empirical difference between thestandard convexity adjustment and Forward Libor Model in a particular case oftwo-period Constant Maturity Swaps. Using daily data from 1991 to 1997, wesimulate the difference (spread) between the two-period CMS swap rates...

Credit Default Swaps (CDS) are in the process of becoming, liquid and extremelyinformative instruments of default risk. Yet, default swap market has severalnovel aspects that have not received much attention. In this paper we studyan aspect of CDS´s that relates to the prediction of financial...

Contingent Credit Lines (CCL) play an important role in the functioning of shortterm capital markets, yet their pricing and hedging have received little interest inthe theoretical finance literature. Risk management issues that arise in maintainingportfolios of CCL are almost completely...

When information is costly, a seller may wish to prevent prospective buyers from acquiring information, for the cost of information acquisition is ultimately borne by the seller. A seller can achieve the desired prevention of information acquisition through posted-price selling, by offering...

Investment banks develop their own innovative derivatives to underwrite corporate issues but they cannot preclude other banks from imitating them. However, during the process of underwriting an innovator can learn more than its imitators about the potential clients. Moving first puts him ahead...

Investment Banks invest in R&D to design innovative securities even when imitation is possible, i.e., when innovations cannot be patented. We show how a financial institution can profit from the development of financial products even if they are unpatentable. For certain types of financial...

Investment banks imitate other banks innovative corporate securities with their own varieties, and compete with the innovator to underwrite new issues. This paper uses data of all the corporate offerings of Equity-Linked and Derivative Securities from the SDC records to estimate the issuers...