Dwarf galaxies in groups of galaxies provide excellent test cases for models of structure formation. This led to a so-called small-scale crisis, including the famous missing-satellites and too-big-to-fail problems. It was suggested that these two problems ...
After the financial crisis, policy rates in the major advanced economies have moved downwards to near/below zero. Some countries have experienced an increase in house prices and an expansion of mortgages. Also, there have been considerable changes in the m ...
Low-for-long nominal interest rates have resulted in strong growth in mort- gage lending and real house prices in Switzerland. Domestically-oriented, small banks have mostly contributed to this expansion in mortgage lending while the two big, global system ...
We challenge the view that short-term debt curbs moral hazard and demonstrate that, in a world with financing frictions and fair debt pricing, short-term debt generates incentives for risk-taking. To do so, we develop a model in which firms are financed wi ...
This thesis examines the optimal mode of financing for banks and financial institutions. The first chapter, which is a joint work with Prof. Jean-Charles Rochet, investigates how Systemically Important Financial Institutions (SIFIs) should be financed. The ...
We investigate why only some banks use regulatory arbitrage. We predict that banks wanting to be riskier than allowed by capital regulations (constrained banks) use regulatory arbitrage, while others do not. We find support for this hypothesis using trust- ...
Using a comprehensive sample of trades from Schedule 13D filings by activist investors, we study how measures of adverse selection respond to informed trading. We find that on days when activists accumulate shares, measures of adverse selection and of stoc ...
This thesis has two objectives. The first objective is to better understand the value of energy efficiency in buildings and its relationship to secondary market real estate prices. The second objective is to understand the cost of the implied insurance inc ...