In a production economy with trade in financial markets motivated by the desire to share labor-income risk and to speculate, we show that speculation increases volatility of asset returns and investment growth, increases the equity risk premium, and reduces welfare. Regulatory measures, such as...

This paper studies the welfare properties of competitive equilibria in an economy with incomplete markets subject to idiosyncratic and aggregate shocks. We focus on the role of securitization, whereby borrowers can reduce idiosyncratic asset risk, which enables increased leverage and investment....

We construct a dynamic model economy in which investors from segmented markets have varying financial asset demands. Intermediaries make arbitrage profits by exploiting the price spreads across markets. Meanwhile, they are required to separately post collateral to support arbitrage trades. We...

This paper examines credit market policies under pecuniary externalities induced by collateral constraints. Pigouvian taxes/subsidies on debt or savings are derived as Ramsey-optimal policies. Firstly, prudential (ex-ante) debt taxes can restore constrained efficiency. Secondly, when policies...

This paper explores the interaction between a credit crunch and the maturity of government debt, focusing on its impacts on an economy with heterogeneous households. We find that an increase in debt maturity helps softening the economic slump that follows a credit crisis. We show that,...