We analyze a rating agency's incentives to distort ratings in a model with a monopolistic profit maximizing rating agency, a continuum of heterogeneous firms, and a competitive market of risk-neutral investors. Firms sell bonds, the value of a firm's bond is known to the firm and observable by...

I develop a framework of the build-up and outbreak of financial crises in an asymmetric information setting. In equilibrium, two distinct economic states arise endogenously: normal times – periods of modest investment, and booms – periods of expansionary investment. Normal times occur when...

This paper develops a tractable dynamic model to study bank runs in a financial system, featuring the linkage between bank runs and asset market prices. The model speaks to the evolution of a systemic crisis. In our model economy, there are many banks and they share a common asset market. The...

This paper offers a theory of development which links the degree of market incompleteness to capital accumulation and growth. At early stages of development, the presence of indivisible projects limits the degree of risk-spreading (diversification) that the economy can achieve. The desire to...

Risk parity is an asset allocation strategy designed so each asset class contributes equally to overall portfolio risk (as measured by volatility). While risk parity offers potential advantages, its success hinges on key assumptions and a favorable environment for bonds. Like the traditional...

We explore the trading decisions of equity mutual funds during ten periods of extreme market uncertainty. We find that mutual funds reduced their aggregate holdings of illiquid stocks. Exploring the drivers behind this result reveals that this is mainly driven by larger withdrawals from funds...

Prior studies indicate that institutional investors are informed, in the sense that their trades predict price changes. In this study we show that return predictive ability of institutions arises (after controlling for size, book-to-market, and momentum) mainly from institutional sales of...

We examine the relationship between portfolio risk and equity returns over different investment horizons of institutional investors. Compared to long-term institutions, portfolios held by short-term institutions exhibit higher factor loadings in market, size, and momentum. In particular, they...

The recent financial crisis offered an interesting opportunity to analyze the markets'; behavior in a high-volatility framework. In this paper, we analyzed the price discovery process of the Italian banks’ Credit Default Swap (CDS) spreads through the Merton model, extended with the inclusion...

Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) – tradeable investments that provide a return linked to an underlying index or basket of assets – are likely the most successful financial product since the 2008 crisis. Over the last decade they've experienced remarkable growth. Yet these products may also be...