Most derivative contracts are traded over-the-counter, i.e., bilaterally between two counterparties. Recently, clearing services have become available that allow to transfer over-the-counter derivatives to a central counterparty (clearing house). We develop a framework to determine the effects...

The price process in a financial market is driven by demand and supply. Statistical analyses have shown that price “feeds back” on future demand and supply. To date, few testable models have been proposed that offer an economic explanation for this relationship. In this paper, we investigate a...

Like many financial contracts, derivatives are subject to default risk. A very popular mechanism in derivatives markets to mitigate the risk of non-performance on contracts is margining. By attaching collateral to a contract, margining supposedly reduces default risk. The broader impacts of the...

We investigate the effects of margining, a widely-used mechanism for attaching collateral to derivatives contracts, on derivatives trading volume, default risk, and on the welfare in the banking sector. First, we develop a stylized banking sector equilibrium model to develop some basic intuition...

This article introduces four metrics quantifying the adequacy of retirement savings taking into account all major sources of retirement income. The metrics are applied to a representative sample of the Australian population aged 40 and above. Employers in Australia currently make compulsory...

By attaching collateral to a derivatives contract, margining supposedly reduces default risk. In this paper, we rst develop a set of testable hypotheses about the eects of margining on banks' welfare, trading volume, and default risk in the context of a stylized banking sector equilibrium model....