On the NYSE and exchanges that feature open limit order books, larger orders receive worse prices. Accordingly, market microstructure theory has focused on developing consistent models. However, on exchanges such as the London Stock Exchange, NASDAQ and FX markets, larger orders receive better...

A standard presumption of market microstructure models is that competition between risk-neutral market makers inevitably leads to price schedules that leave market makers zero expected profits conditional on the order flow. This paper documents an important lack of robustness of this zero-profit...

We study insider trading in a dynamic setting. Rational, but uninformed, traders choose between investment projects with different levels of insider trading. Insider trading distorts investment towards assets with less private information. However, when investment is sufficiently information...

This paper characterizes the optimal risk-taking strategies of mutual fund managers competing in multi-period winner-take-all tournaments. With competition among mutual funds, every fund begins by taking maximum risk. In the final period, all funds continue to take maximum risk except possibly...

We use the founding of the Federal Reserve as a historical experiment to provide some insight into whether a lender of last resort can stabilize financial markets. Following the Panic of 1907, Congress passed two measures that established a lender of last resort in the United States: (1) the...

To examine the potential role cohort preferences play in asset pricing cycles and puzzles, we consider a model with stochastic generational variation in preferences. In our structure, the pricing kernel reflects an investing generation's consumption growth from mid-life to retirement rather than...

Recent regulatory proposals for margin requirements on non-cleared over-the-counter derivative products (i.e., derivatives that are not traded and not cleared on an exchange but instead are traded directly between two parties) could have resulted in dramatic changes in the ability of market...

Heightened counterparty risk during the recent financial crisis has raised questions about the role clearinghouses play in global financial stability. Empirical identification of the effect of centralized clearing on counterparty risk is challenging because of the co-incidence of macro-economic...

Heightened counterparty risk during the recent financial crisis has raised questions about the role clearinghouses play in global financial stability. Empirical identification of the effect of centralized clearing on counterparty risk is challenging because of the co-incidence of macro-economic...

In this paper, we demonstrate using a simple model that reducing tick size may either reduce or increase adverse selection. Therefore, the effect of tick size on adverse selection is an important empirical question. At the same time, we demonstrate that the standard asymmetric information models...