The unfolding financial turmoil in mature economies has prompted the official and private sectors to reconsider policies, business models and risk management practices. Regardless of its future evolution, it already threatens to become one of the defining economic moments of the 21st century....

We argue that there is a connection between the interbank market for liquidity and thebroader financial markets, which has its basis in demand for liquidity by banks. Tightnessin the interbank market for liquidity leads banks to engage in what we term “liquiditypull-back,” which involves...

This paper analyzes return patterns and determinants at the Oslo Stock Ex-change (OSE) in the period 1980{2006. We nd that a three-factor model con-taining the market, a size factor and a liquidity factor provides a reasonable t forthe cross-section of Norwegian stock returns. As expected, oil...

A central role for economic policy involves understanding and reducing the impact of unexpected,extreme events. In this paper, we develop a simple economic framework with latentregime switches. This framework explains why investors and policymakers can decide not tohedge against extreme events,...

Government-nanced bank restructuring programs, occasionally costing up to 50% of GDP,are commonly used to resolve banking crises. We analyze the Ramsey-optimal paths of bankrecapitalization programs that weigh recapitalization benets and costs under dierent nancingoptions. In our model bank...

How does technological progress in financial intermediation affect the economy? To address this questiona costly-state verification framework is embedded into a standard growth model. In particular, financialintermediaries can invest resources to monitor the returns earned by firms. The...

This paper studies the relationship between investor protection, financial risk sharing and income inequality. In the presence of market frictions, better protection makesinvestors more willing to take on entrepreneurial risk while lending to firms. This implies lower cost of external finance...

We study the dynamic general equilibrium of an economy where risk averse shareholders delegate the management of the firm to risk averse managers. The optimal contract has two main components: an incentive component corresponding to a non-tradable equity position and a variable ’salary’...

What is the fundamental value of a stock? Do stock prices deviate from this fundamental value? If yes, do they go back to their fundamental value? This paper proposes to answer these three questions by using a stock valuation model based on the Consumption-Capital Asset Pricing Model (C-CAPM)...

The large spread between equity returns and risk free rates observed in most stock markets (the "equity premium puzzle") has been subject of intense debates. Two main families of models claim to solve this puzzle: habit formation models and loss aversion models. The goal of this paper is to...