We show how the timing of financial innovation might have contributed to the mortgage boom and then to the bust of 2007-2009. We study the effect of leverage, tranching, securitization and CDS on asset prices in a general equilibrium model with collateral. We show why tranching and leverage tend...

This is the graduation speech I gave on receiving an honorary doctorate at the University of Athens Economics and Business School. I talk about my Greek family, about how I got interested in economics, and then how in the 1990s I came to think about default, collateral, and leverage as the...

We discuss how leverage can be monitored for institutions, individuals, and assets. While traditionally the interest rate has been regarded as the important feature of a loan, we argue that leverage is sometimes even more important. Monitoring leverage provides information about how risk builds...

We show how the timing of financial innovation might have contributed to the mortgage bubble and then to the crash of 2007-2009. We show why tranching and leverage first raised asset prices and why CDS lowered them afterwards. This may seem puzzling, since it implies that creating a derivative...

The use of equilibrium models in economics springs from the desire for parsimonious models of economic phenomena that take human reasoning into account. This approach has been the cornerstone of modern economic theory. We explain why this is so, extolling the virtues of equilibrium theory; then...

Numerous empirical studies have demonstrated that asset prices react rapidly, if at all, to news published in the mass media. In many cases, the information has been discounted and prices have already moved upon primary publication through news wires, press releases or firm announcements. Any...

The modelling of financial markets presents a problem which is both theoretically challenging and practically important. The theoretical aspects concern the issue of market efficiency which may even have political implications, whilst the practical side of the problem has clear relevance to...

The need to develop securities market has, following the recent international financial crises, increasingly attracted the attention of national and international policy makers. Never before have developed and developing countries shared such a strong interest in ensuring the stable growth of...

Existe un diferencial entre el valor de mercado del patrimonio y el valor contable. Este se relaciona a los activos intangibles. Un análisis de regresión, permite concluir que el retorno total al inversor, la rentabilidad sobre activos y las utilidades totales, en conjunto con alguna (todas...

EXTRACTO: El objetivo de esta investigación es contrastar las dos metodologías que han sido utilizadas normalmente para el cálculo de beta de mercado. Ellas son: la “tradicional” propuesta por Black, Jensen y Scholes (1972) y por Fama y MacBeth (1973); y la denominada “impar-par”...