This paper proposes a model that links households and firms, as usual, by markets forfactors and goods and, additionally, by a banking sector that channels households’funds to firms and eliminates idiosyncratic risk. In equilibrium, agency costs and taxbenefits of corporate debt are equalizing...

We consider the effects of an imperfectly competitive banking sector on the capital stock in a version of the two-period Diamond OLG model, focusing on how profits are returned. There are two broad alternatives: profits may be taxed and returned to households exogenously as fiscal transfers or...

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...

Size effects matter in banking. Typically, banking systems are dominated by a smallnumber of large players who are also active in a large range of countries and marketsegments. At the same time, there exist small and often regionally-focused financialinstitutions. This holds also for the German...

We study how the structure of housing finance affects the transmission of monetarypolicy shocks. We document three main facts: first, the features of residentialmortgage markets differ markedly across industrialized countries; second, and accordingto a wide range of indicators, the transmission...

We consider a simple extension of the basic new-Keynesian setup in which we relaxthe assumption of frictionless financial markets. In our economy, asymmetricinformation and default risk lead banks to optimally charge a lending rate above therisk-free rate. Our contribution is threefold. First,...

How can globalization affect the optimal choice of monetary policy strategy during asset price booms in a small open economy? Globalization can have an impact on both the supply and the demand side of the economy. Focusing on the supply side of globalization, it has been shown that a flattening...

This paper investigates the role of trade credit in the transmissionof monetary policy. Most models of the transmission mechanism allowthe firm to access only financial markets or bank lending according tosome net worth criterion. In our model we introduce trade creditas an additional source of...

This paper examines monetary policy in a currency union whose member countries exhibitheterogeneous rates of limited asset markets participation (LAMP). As a result risksharing among member countries is imperfect and the monetary transmission mechanismcan dier across countries. In the limit the...

The recent crisis was characterized by massive illiquidity. This paper reviews what we know and don't know about illiquidity and all its friends: market freezes, fire sales, contagion, and ultimately insolvencies and bailouts. It first explains why liquidity cannot easily be apprehended through...