This thesis consists of three empirical essays in financial economics, examining the consequences of imperfect financial markets for households, small business and house prices. In the first chapter (co-authored with Meta Brown and Brandi Coates) we explore the effect of personal bankruptcy laws on household debt. Personal bankruptcy laws in the US, and many other countries, protect a fraction ...

Today, with respect to the increasing growth of demand to get credit from the customers of banks and finance and credit institutions, using an effective and efficient method to decrease the risk of non-repayment of credit given is very necessary. Assessment of customers' credit is one of the most important and the most essential duties of banks and institutions, and if an error occurs in this f...

This paper studies the choice of payment instruments in a simple model where both money and credit can be used as means of payment. We endogenize the acceptability of credit by allowing retailers to invest in a costly record-keeping technology. Our framework captures the two-sided market interaction between consumers and retailers, leading to strategic complementarities that can generate multip...

As an integrated part of a supply contract, trade credit has intrinsic connections with supply chain contracting and inventory management. Using a stylized model that explicitly captures the interaction of firms’ operations decisions and financial risks, this paper attempts to develop a deeper understanding of trade credit from an operational perspective. Revolving around the question of what r...

Delayed payment (trade credit) and prepayment are widely observed forms of interfirm credit. We propose a simple theory to account for the prevalence of such credit. A downstream firm trades off inventory holding costs against lost sales. Lost final sales impose a negative externality on the upstream firm. The solution requires a subsidy limited by the value of inputs. Allowing the downstream f...