Empirical findings document a number of facts on small business finance and relationship lending, that lack hitherto a theoretical explanation. First, the impact of competition on relationship lending may be nonmonotonic and depends on the organizational structure of the banking market. Second,...

We investigate the impact of the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Act on the cost of debt through its effect on the reliability of financial reporting. Using Credit Default Swap (CDS) spreads and a structural CDS pricing model, we calibrate a firm-level corporate opacity parameter in the pre- and post-SOX...

We explicitly solve for the aggregate asset prices in a discrete-time general-equilibrium endowment economy with two agents who differ with respect to their preferences for risk aversion and sensitivity to habit, either internal or external. We compute equilibrium quantities -- equity premium,...

This paper discusses the appropriate methodology for the estimation of systematic downside risk. I find that the Hogan & Warren (1974) approach is the only one of several specifications of downside beta, that is consistent with both the original downside risk framework, as defined by Markowitz...

We present an affine term structure model for the joint pricing of real and nominal bond yields that accounts for illiquidity. Using the model to adjust breakevens for inflation and liquidity risk substantially improves inflation forecasts. Our estimates imply that the Federal Reserve's...

In this paper, we study the FDIC's Temporary Liquidity Guarantee Program to examine the effectiveness of this government sponsored solution to the current banking crisis. We explore the impact of the program on the liquidity and credit crisis in the debt markets and the market value of the FDIC...