Financial Markets Asymmetric Information And Macroeconomic Equilibrium

The study of the interaction between the financial sector and the sector of the economy is one of the most recent advances in macroeconomic theory. While mainstream economics assigns a passive role to the financial sector there is a growing body of literature which emphasizes the importance of financial intermediaries in explaining fluctuations and the determination of the process through which monetary policy impulses are transmitted to the rest of the economy. This literature has its origin in the models that rely on asymmetric information to explain imperfections in financial markts and in empirical evidence collected through various econometric techniques and through historical studies. This book surveys the relevant work ion the subject, evaluates the empirical evidence and the explanatory power of the theories proposed and furnishes new and empirical results.

Contributed papers presented at the one of the technical sessions of Indian Economic Association's 85th conference held at the Kerala University in 2002.

In this volume, specialists from traditionally separate areas in economics and finance investigate issues at the conjunction of their fields. They argue that financial decisions of the firm can affect real economic activity—and this is true for enough firms and consumers to have significant aggregate economic effects. They demonstrate that important differences—asymmetries—in access to information between "borrowers" and "lenders" ("insiders" and "outsiders") in financial transactions affect investment decisions of firms and the organization of financial markets. The original research emphasizes the role of information problems in explaining empirically important links between internal finance and investment, as well as their role in accounting for observed variations in mechanisms for corporate control.

This book presents recent developments in the economics of asymmetric information. The problems of selection and moral hazard, with hidden actions or hidden information, are introduced by examining how they affect the market for investment finance. The ideas are then used to analyse the market for insurance, signalling and screening models of education, efficiency wages, industrial regulation, public procurement and auctions. Coverage is thorough while avoiding excessive mathematical detail. Diagrams and verbal reasoning make the ideas accessible to intermediate level undergraduate students and beyond.

"Asset Prices, Booms and Recessions" is a book on Financial Economics from a dynamic perspective. It focuses on the dynamic interaction of financial markets and economic activity. The financial markets to be studied here encompasses the money and bond market, credit market, stock market and foreign exchange market. Economic activity is described by the activity of firms, banks, households, governments and countries. The book shows how economic activity affects asset prices and the financial market and how asset prices and financial market volatility feed back to economic activity. The focus in this book is on theories, dynamic models and empirical evidence. Empirical applications relate to episodes of financial instability and financial crises of the U.S., Latin American, Asian as well as Euro-area countries. The current version of the book has moved to a more extensive coverage of the topics in financial economics by updating the literature in the appropriate chapters. Moreover it gives a more extensive treatment of new and more advanced topics in financial economics such as international portfolio theory, multi-agent and evolutionary approaches, capital asset pricing beyond consumption-based models and dynamic portfolio decisions. Overall, the book presents material that researchers and practitioners in financial engineering need to know about economic dynamics and that economists, practitioners and policy makers need to know about the financial market.

An Italian study group made up of seven economists report their findings on how the new Keynesian economics has reacted to challenges from new classical economics by strengthening the analytical power of its models. First they discuss the theoretical unde

The paper analyzes the effects of informational asymmetries on the market structure of the banking industry in a multi-period model of spatial competition. All lenders face uncertainty with regard to borrowers’ creditworthiness, but, in the process of lending, incumbent banks gather proprietary information about their clients, acquiring an advantage over potential entrants. These informational asymmetries are an important determinant of the industry structure and may represent a barrier to entry for new banks. The paper shows that, in contrast with traditional models of horizontal differentiation, the steady-state equilibrium is characterized by a finite number of banks even in the absence of fixed costs.

Asymmetric information (the fact that borrowers have better information than their lenders) and its theoretical and practical evidence now forms part of the basic tool kit of every financial economist. It is a phenomenon that has major implications for a number of economic and financial issues ranging from both micro and macroeconomic level - corporate debt, investment and dividend policies, the depth and duration of business cycles, the rate of long term economic growth - to the origin of financial and international crises. Asymmetric Information in Financial Markets aims to explain this concept in an accessible way, without jargon and by reducing mathematical complexity. Using elementary algebra and statistics, graphs, and convincing real-world evidence, the author explores the foundations of the problems posed by asymmetries of information in a refreshingly accessible and intuitive way.