Finance Seminar - Milena Wittwer (Boston College)

Abstarct: We examine how intermediary capitalization affects  asset prices in a framework that allows for  market power. We introduce a model in which capital constrained intermediaries buy or trade an asset in an imperfectly competitive market, and show that weaker capital constraints lead to both higher prices and   markups. In exchange markets, this results in reduced market liquidity, while in primary markets it leads to higher auction revenues at an implicit cost of larger price distortion.  Using data from Canadian Treasury auctions, we demonstrate how our framework can quantify these effects by linking asset demand to individual intermediaries' balance sheet information.

Location LG16 Seminar Room, Bentham House

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