Alternative payment instruments are studied in an economy with private information, delayed communication, and limited commitment. Attention is restricted to checks and bank drafts, which differ in resource cost and communication characteristics. Checks are less costly but settlement delays create a limited commitment constraint. We Þnd that drafts dominate at low wealths and checks at higher w...

We provide experimental evidence on coordination within large groups that could proxy the atomistic nature of real-world markets. use a bank run game where two pure-strategy equilibria can be ranked by payoff and risk dominance sequence public announcements introduces stochastic sunspot equilibria. find systematic group size effects theory fails to predict. When payoff-dominant strategy is risk...

Designed to compete with fiat currencies, bitcoin proposes it is a crypto-currency alternative. Bitcoin makes a number of false claims, including: bitcoin can be a reserve currency for banking; hoarding equals saving; and that we should believe bitcoin can expand by deflation to become a global transactional currency supply. Bitcoin’s developers combine technical implementation proficiency with...

Loan commitments represent more than 82 percent of all commercial and industrial loans by domestic banks. This paper develops a valuation model for loan commitments incorporating early exercise, multiple fees, partial exercise and credit risk. The model is analytically tractable and easy to implement. Using a sample of commercial paper backup credit lines from the Dealscan database, we show tha...

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether foreign bank presence has had a stabilizing or destabilizing effect on the Latin American banking sector. Our results suggest that, while "brick and mortar" operations of foreign banks in Latin American countries contribute to the reduction of the probability of a banking crisis, there is no significant effect of direct foreign lending initiated...

In a field experiment that constructs randomized credit limit shock, participants borrow to spend 11 cents on the dollar in first quarter and 28 by third year. Effects extend those far from limit, who had new limits as available credit, with liquid asset buffer. short-run, flexible installment contracts are used tandem, unconstrained using installments more. Long-run borrowing is predominantly ...

Measuring the sensitivity of housing demand to mortgage rates and available leverage is challenging because there generally no exogenous variation in these variables. This paper circumvents this issue by designing a strategic survey which respondents report their willingness pay (WTP) for home under different financing scenarios. Relaxation down payment constraints or an increase nonhousing wea...

Borrower-based macroprudential (MP) policies - such as caps on loan-to-value (LTV) ratios and debt-service-to-income (DSTI) limits contain the build-up of systemic risk by reducing probability conditional impact a crisis. While LTV/DSTI can increase inequality at introduction, they dampen in under adverse macroeconomic conditions. The relative size these opposing effects is an empirical questio...

We use quasi-random access to the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP) identify causal effect of refinancing into a lower-rate mortgage on borrower balance sheet outcomes. Refinancing substantially reduces default rates mortgages and other debt. also causes borrowers expand their debt instruments, such as auto loans, home equity lines, consumer debts that are proxies for spending. Borrowers...

Credit spreads display occasional spikes and are more strongly countercyclical in times of elevated financial stress. Financial crises extreme cases this nonlinear behavior, featuring skyrocketing credit spreads, sharp losses bank equity, deep recessions. We develop estimate a macroeconomic model with banking sector which banks’ leverage constraints occasionally binding equity issuance is endog...