Many regulations that affect firms and banks in the economy are based on size thresholds. We develop a model that shows that such regulations distort risk-taking incentives, providing above-threshold firms with greater incentives to take risk and below-threshold firms the opposite. Risk...

We examine how regulatory uncertainty impacts the credit spreads of covered bonds issued by U.S. domiciled banks. Using data on covered bonds issued by Washington Mutual and Bank of America, for the September 2006 to December 2016 period, we find that investors require an incremental spread that...

The paper analyzes a very stylized model of crises and demonstrates how the degree of strategic complementarity in the actions of investors is a critical determinant of fragility. It is shown how the balance sheet composition of a financial intermediary, parameters of the information structure...

This article analyzes the last financial crisis focusing on the recurrent dynamics of externalities in banking. It shows that two major determinants of the crisis were the uncertainty of a new form of financial intermediation and the failure of regulation to cope with its externalities....

We show that any objective risk measurement algorithm mandated by central banks for regulated financial entities will result in more risk being taken on by those financial entities than would otherwise be the case. Furthermore, the risks taken on by the regulated financial entities are far more...

We address a three-period model of fi nancial intermediaries that involves securitization of risky loan assets, leverage, and asymmetric information. We show that the risk retention requirement with a fi xed ratio, stipulated by the Dodd-Frank Act, might induce losses of social welfare in the...

The 2011--2013 rule-making process for the regulation of qualified mortgages was correlated with a reduction in mortgage lending. In this article, we document this correlation at the bank level. Using a novel measure of banks' perception of regulatory uncertainty, we offer suggestive evidence...

The U.S. financial system faces a major, growing, and much under-appreciated threat from the Federal Reserve's risk modeling agenda — the “Fed stress tests.” These were intended to make the financial system safe but instead create the potential for a new systemic financial crisis.The...

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of bank mergers on systemic and systematic risks on the relative merits of product and market diversification strategies. It also observes determinants of M&A deals criteria, product and market diversification positioning, crisis...

The lack of portfolio granularity in terms of exposure has been shown to have important implications for the amount of a financial institution's economic capital. Based on a numerical simulation model, we provide concrete examples of how granularity affects capital levels. We achieve this by...