Publications

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Customers and Investors: A Framework for Understanding the Evolution of Financial Institutions

July 2019 | Miscellaneous | Paper
with Richard T. Thakor. Abstract Financial institutions are financed by both investors and customers. Investors expect an appropriate risk-adjusted return for providing financing and risk bearing. Customers, in contrast, provide financing in exchange for specific services, and want the service fulfillment to be free of the intermediary's credit risk. We develop a framework that defines the roles of customers and investors in intermediaries, and use it to build an economic theory that has the following main findings. First, with positive net social surplus in the intermediary-customer relationship, the efficient (first best) contract completely insulates the customer from the intermediary's credit risk, thereby exposing the customer only to the risk inherent in the contract terms. Second, when intermediaries face financing frictions, the second-best contract may expose the customer to some intermediary credit risk, generating “customer contract fulfillment” costs. Third, the efficiency loss associated with these costs in the second best rationalizes government guarantees like deposit insurance even when there is no threat of bank runs. We further discuss the implications of this customer-investor nexus for numerous issues related to the design of contracts between financial intermediaries and their customers, the sharing of risks between them, ex ante efficient institutional design, regulatory practices, and the evolving boundaries between banks and financial markets.

Finance Science, Financial Innovation and Long-Term Asset Management

May 19 2017 | Miscellaneous | Presentations
NBER: New Developments in Long-Term Asset Management Second Annual Conference, London, UK

Donald Sussman Fellowship Award Lecture Series

March 16, October 2, December 11 2017 | Miscellaneous, Retirement Planning | Presentations
"Observations on the Role of Finance Science and Financial Innovation in Global Economic Growth and Development"

Q Group Panel Discussion: Looking to the Future. Robert C. Merton, Martin Leibowitz, Andrew W. Lo, Stephen A. Ross and Jeremy Siegel

July/Aug 2016 | Miscellaneous | Paper
Roundtable, Financial Analysts Journal, CFAPubs; CFA Institute.

Financial Innovation: A solution for the current economic climate

September 2016 | Miscellaneous | Paper
Extract from Keynote Speech delivered on June 10, 2016 at Geneva Association 2016 General Assembly, Rome, Italy; Asia Insurance Review, Sept. 2016.

Merton and David Booth Interview

2016 | Miscellaneous | Interview
Dimensional Matrix Book 2016; Dimensional; interview; lifecycle