Consumer protection in financial markets in the form of information disclosure is high on governments agendas, despite the fact that the empirical evidence on its effectiveness is scarce. To measure the impact of Truth-in-Lending-Act-type disclosures on default and indebtedness, as well as of...

Consumer protection in financial markets in the form of information disclosure is high on governments agendas, espite the fact that the empirical evidence on its effectiveness is scarce. To measure the impact of Truth-in-Lending-Act-type disclosures on default and indebtedness, as well as of...

Borrowing decisions affect most households, with large stakes and implications for subfields as varied as macroeconomics and industrial organization. I review theoretical and empirical work on household debt: its prevalence, level, growth, and composition, as well as various measures of consumer...

We study a competitive banking sector in which banks choose the level of risk of their asset portfolios and, upon the public disclosure of stress test results, raise funding by promising investors a repayment. We show that competition forces banks to choose risky assets so as to promise...

This paper develops a dynamic model in which financially constrained agents search for markets which are subject to decreasing returns to scale. In equilibrium, agents only invest in markets with total capital below an endogenous threshold that depends on the equilibrium distribution of capital...

In this paper, we study the optimal credit rating system in an economy where agents need to borrow and have incentives to renege on debt repayments. We show that credit exclusion creates soft collateral in the form of a borrower's reputation. Compared with individual lending, bank lending...

This paper studies optimal disclosure regulation for entrepreneurial public financing with post-financing moral hazard problem. I show that partial disclosure can improve social welfare over full disclosure through reducing efficiency loss caused by the moral hazard problem. As a result, a...

We investigate the role of mandatory financial disclosure in the takeover market for privately held U.S. banks. Public financial information plays a critical role in the takeover market as acquirers rely on it to identify potential targets and conduct preliminary due diligence. Using a...

This study examines the relationship between banks’ role as liquidity providers and opacity in financial reporting, measured with discretionary loan loss provisions. I investigate the 2007 financial crisis, when unexpected credit line drawdowns generated difficulties in liquidity provision for...

Under-refinancing limits the transmission of accommodative monetary policy to the household sector and costs mortgage holders in many countries a significant fraction of income annually. We test whether targeted communication can reduce the attention frictions that inhibit transmission by...