Trading by commodity index traders (CITs) has become an important aspect of financial markets over the past 10 years. We develop an equilibrium model of trader behavior that relates uninformed CIT trading to futures prices. The model predicts that CIT trading reduces the cost of hedging. We test...

The volatility of aggregate economic activity in the United States decreased markedly in the mid eighties. The decrease was diffused among several components of GDP and has been linked to a more stable economic environment, identified by smaller shocks and more effective policy, and a diverse...

Does central bank intervention improve liquidity in the interbank market during the current sub-prime crisis? To answer this question, we employ a unique dataset which reports trades and quotes of the e-MID, the only electronic, regulated interbank market in the world. Our results show that...