I study the business cycle dynamics of the maturity structure of the debt of U.S. non-financial firms. I document three facts: First, the aggregate share of long-term debt in total debt is pro-cyclical. Second, the long-term debt share of small firms has a higher standard deviation and...

I study the business cycle dynamics of the maturity structure of the debt of U.S. non-financial firms. I document three facts: First, the aggregate share of long-term debt in total debt is pro-cyclical. Second, the long-term debt share of small firms has a higher standard deviation and...

This paper studies the efficiency of financial intermediation through securitization in a model with heterogeneous investment projects and asymmetric information about the quality of securitized assets. I show that when retaining part of the risk, the issuer of securitized assets may credibly...

Many policy-makers and researchers view the recent financial and real economic crises across North America, Europe and beyond as a global phenomenon. Some have argued that this global recession has a common source: the U.S. financial crisis. This paper investigates the extent to which a credit...

The author develops a dynamic stochastic general-equilibrium model with an active banking sector, a financial accelerator, and financial frictions in the interbank and bank capital markets. He investigates the importance of banking sector frictions on business cycle fluctuations and assesses the...

We propose a macroeconomic model in which adverse selection in investment drives the amplification of macroeconomic fluctuations, in line with prominent roles played by the credit crunch and collapse of the asset-backed security market in the financial crisis. Endogenous lending standards emerge...