The analysis highlights the aspects of diversified market structures and of local, low-distance banking as advantageous for financial stability. Heterogeneity protects from uniform market behaviour. Local banking can better overcome the problem of asymmetric information, particular in SME...

Tournament competitiveness and predictability of outcomes are inversely related. We introduce a new measure of competitiveness or predictability using discrepancies between tennis players' seed values and attained ranks in all rounds of the four Grand Slam Tennis Tournaments (GST). Using data...

An ability to postpone one's execution without penalty provides an important strategic advantage in high-frequency trading. To elucidate competition between traders one has to formulate to a quantitative theory of formation of the execution price from market expectations and quotes. This theory...

I consider a rational expectations framework in which attention-constrained individuals compete against each other and institutions. The model reconciles a set of empirical facts that cannot be simultaneously explained by standard theories: retail trader portfolios are highly correlated, retail...

Foreign bank entry is frequently associated with spillover effects for local banks and increasing competition in the local banking market. We study the impact of these effects on host countries. In particular, we ask how these effects interact and how they depend on the competitive environment...

With firms searching for secured external funding by engaging in multiple bank relationships on the one hand and banks for profit maximization on the other hand, conflicts of interests may arise when firms' banks demand access to corporate private information. This information can help banks to...

Expanding access to financial services holds the promise to help reduce poverty and foster economic development. However, little is still known about the determinants of the outreach of financial systems across countries. Our study is the first attempt to employ a large panel of countries,...

Microfinance institutions, despite the presence of competition and informational asymmetries, typically offer a limited variety of contracts. Assuming price competition, we propose a simple theoretical explanation for this behavior and study its consequences in terms of strategic interaction and...

This paper documents a positive relation between bank competition and the penetration of bank accounts at the municipal level in Mexico. To account for potential biases in our regressions due to the endogeneity of market structure, we employ a two-stage estimation approach based on an...