Ten Isn’t Large! Group Size and Coordination in a Large-Scale Experiment Staff working paper 2020-30 Jasmina Arifovic, Cars Hommes, Anita Kopányi-Peuker, Isabelle Salle Economic activities typically involve coordination among a large number of agents. These agents have to anticipate what other agents think before making their own decisions. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C9, C92, D, D8, D83, D9, D90, G, G2, G20 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk
Maturity Composition and the Demand for Government Debt Staff working paper 2020-29 Jason Allen, Jakub Kastl, Milena Wittwer The main objectives of debt management are to raise stable and low-cost funding to meet the government’s financial needs and to maintain a well-functioning market for government securities. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C1, C14, D, D4, D44, E, E5, E58, G, G1, G12 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Funds management, Market functioning, Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Models and tools, Economic models
Why Fixed Costs Matter for Proof-of-Work Based Cryptocurrencies Staff working paper 2020-27 Rodney J. Garratt, Maarten van Oordt Can Bitcoin survive? Some say it will become vulnerable to attacks as the rewards for processing Bitcoin transactions continue to decline. The economics of fixed costs suggest the specialized hardware used to mine Bitcoin may be key to its survival. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): G, G1, G10, L, L1, L11 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Money and payments, Digital assets and fintech
COVID-19 and bond market liquidity: alert, isolation and recovery Staff analytical note 2020-14 Jean-Sébastien Fontaine, Hayden Ford, Adrian Walton The disruption due to COVID-19 reverberated through the bond markets in three phases. In the first phase, dealers met the rising demand for liquidity. In the second, dealers reduced the supply of liquidity, and trading conditions worsened significantly. Finally, the market returned to relative stability following several interventions by the Bank of Canada. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes JEL Code(s): E, E4 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Funds management, Market functioning, Financial system, Financial stability and systemic risk
Trading for Bailouts Staff working paper 2020-23 Toni Ahnert, Caio Machado, Ana Elisa Pereira In times of high uncertainty, governments often implement interventions such as bailouts to financial institutions. To use public resources efficiently and to avoid major spillovers to the rest of the economy, policy-makers try to identify which institutions should receive assistance. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): D, D8, D83, G, G1, G12, G14, G18 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation, Financial stability and systemic risk, Financial system regulation and oversight
Classical Decomposition of Markowitz Portfolio Selection Staff working paper 2020-21 Christopher Demone, Olivia Di Matteo, Barbara Collignon In this study, we enhance Markowitz portfolio selection with graph theory for the analysis of two portfolios composed of either EU or US assets. Using a threshold-based decomposition of their respective covariance matrices, we perturb the level of risk in each portfolio and build the corresponding sets of graphs. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): C, C0, C02 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods
Trading on Long-term Information Staff working paper 2020-20 Corey Garriott, Ryan Riordan Investors who trade based on good research are said to be the backbone of stock markets: They conduct research to discover the value of stocks and, through their trading, guide financial prices to reflect true value. What can make their job difficult is that high-speed, short-term traders could use machine learning and other technologies to infer when informed investors are trading. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): G, G1, G14, G2, G20, L, L1 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Market structure, Financial system, Financial institutions and intermediation
The Term Structures of Loss and Gain Uncertainty Staff working paper 2020-19 Bruno Feunou, Ricardo Lopez Aliouchkin, Roméo Tedongap, Lai Xu We investigate the uncertainty around stock returns at different investment horizons. Since a return is either a loss or a gain, we categorize return uncertainty into two components—loss uncertainty and gain uncertainty. We then use these components to evaluate investment. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): G, G1, G12 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Models and tools, Econometric, statistical and computational methods
A Simple Method for Extracting the Probability of Default from American Put Option Prices Staff working paper 2020-15 Bo Young Chang, Greg Orosi A put option is a financial contract that gives the holder the right to sell an asset at a specific price by (or at) a specific date. A put option can therefore provide its holder insurance against a large drop in the stock price. This makes the prices of put options an ideal source of information for a market-based measure of the probability of a firm’s default. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): G, G1, G13, G3, G33 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Market structure
Learning, Equilibrium Trend, Cycle, and Spread in Bond Yields Staff working paper 2020-14 Guihai Zhao This equilibrium model explains the trend in long-term yields and business-cycle movements in short-term yields and yield spreads. The less-frequent inverted yield curves (and less-frequent recessions) after the 1990s are due to recent secular stagnation and procyclical inflation expectations. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, G, G0, G00, G1, G12 Research Theme(s): Financial markets and funds management, Market functioning, Models and tools, Economic models, Monetary policy, Inflation dynamics and pressures, Monetary policy framework and transmission