The thesis studies three pivotal episodes in the evolution of what became the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-09. These three events - the collapse of the US housing market, the breakdown of the repo money market, and the banking crash - are indispensable for understanding some of the key...

We estimate an investors' demand model for hedge funds to analyze the potential impact of leverage limits in the industry. Our estimation results highlight the importance of heterogeneous investor preference for the use of leverage, i.e., 20% of investors prefer leverage usage while others do...