Bio

Phoebe Tian is a Senior Economist in the Financial Stability Department (FSD). Her research interests include financial economics and empirical industrial organization. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.


Staff research

Liquidation Mechanisms and Price Impacts in DeFi

Staff working paper 2025-12 Phoebe Tian, Yu Zhu
This paper theoretically and empirically examines the price impacts of liquidations in DeFi and how different liquidation mechanisms affect the price impacts.

The International Exposure of the Canadian Banking System

In 2023, the share of Canadian banks’ foreign assets and liabilities amounted to around 50%. While Canadian banks engage domestically mostly with households and non-financial corporations, their most common counterparties abroad are non-bank financial institutions.

Unintended Consequences of the Home Affordable Refinance Program

Staff working paper 2024-11 Phoebe Tian, Chen Zheng
We investigate the unintended consequences of the Home Affordable Refinance Program (HARP). Originally designed to help borrowers refinance after the 2008–09 global financial crisis, HARP inadvertently strengthened the market power of incumbent lenders by creating a cost advantage for them. Despite a 2013 policy rectifying this cost advantage, we still find significant welfare losses for borrowers.

The Role of Long-Term Contracting in Business Lending

Staff working paper 2024-2 Phoebe Tian
This paper examines inefficiencies arising from a lack of long-term contracting in small business lending in China.

Three things we learned about the Lynx payment system

Staff analytical note 2023-14 Nikil Chande, Zhentong Lu, Hiru Rodrigo, Phoebe Tian
Canada transitioned to a new wholesale payment system, Lynx, in August 2021. Lynx is based on a real-time settlement model that eliminates credit risk in the system. This model can require more liquidity; however, Lynx’s design allows Canada’s wholesale payments to settle efficiently.

How Banks Create Gridlock to Save Liquidity in Canada's Large Value Payment System

Staff working paper 2023-26 Rodney J. Garratt, Zhentong Lu, Phoebe Tian
We show how participants in Canada’s new high-value payment system save liquidity by exploiting the new gridlock resolution arrangement. The findings have important implications for the design of these systems and shed light on financial institutions’ liquidity preference.

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