G1 - General Financial Markets

• 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 Topic(s): Asset pricing, Financial markets, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): G, G1, G13, G3, G33

• 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 Topic(s): Asset pricing, Financial markets, Interest rates JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, G, G0, G00, G1, G12

• Interest Rate Uncertainty as a Policy Tool

  Staff Working Paper 2020-13 Fabio Ghironi, Galip Kemal Ozhan

  We study a novel policy tool—interest rate uncertainty—that can be used to discourage inefficient capital inflows and to adjust the composition of external account between shortterm securities and foreign direct investment (FDI).

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): International financial markets, Monetary policy and uncertainty, Monetary policy framework JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, F, F2, F21, F3, F32, G, G1, G15

• Optimal Taxation in Asset Markets with Adverse Selection

  Staff Working Paper 2020-11 Mohammad Davoodalhosseini

  What is the optimal tax schedule in over-the-counter markets, e.g., those for corporate bonds? I find that an optimal tax schedule is often non-monotonic. For example, trading of some high-price assets should be subsidized, and trading of some low-price assets should be taxed.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Economic models, Financial markets, Financial system regulation and policies, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): D, D8, D82, D83, E, E2, E24, G, G1, G10, J, J3, J31, J6, J64

• The Effect of Oil Price Shocks on Asset Markets: Evidence from Oil Inventory News

  Staff Working Paper 2020-8 Ron Alquist, Reinhard Ellwanger, Jianjian Jin

  We quantify the reaction of U.S. equity, bond futures, and exchange rate returns to oil price shocks driven by oil inventory news.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, Recent economic and financial developments JEL Code(s): D, D8, D83, E, E4, E44, G, G1, G14, G15, Q, Q4, Q41, Q43

• A Portfolio-Balance Model of Inflation and Yield Curve Determination

  Staff Working Paper 2020-6 Antonio Diez de los Rios

  How does the supply of nominal government debt affect the macroeconomy? To answer this question, we propose a portfolio-balance model of the yield curve in which inflation is determined through an interest rate rule.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Asset pricing, Debt management, Inflation and prices, Interest rates, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E4, E43, E5, E52, G, G1, G12, H, H6, H63

• CBDC and Monetary Sovereignty

  Staff Analytical Note 2020-5 Antonio Diez de los Rios, Yu Zhu

  In an increasingly digitalized world, issuers of private digital currency can weaken central banks’ ability to stabilize the economy. By continuing to make central bank money attractive as a payment instrument in a digital world, a central bank digital currency (CDBC) could help to maintain a country’s monetary sovereignty.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Topic(s): Digital currencies and fintech, Monetary policy JEL Code(s): E, E5, E52, E58, F, F5, F55, G, G1, G15

• Contagion in Dealer Networks

  Staff Working Paper 2020-1 Jean-Sébastien Fontaine, Adrian Walton

  Dealers connect investors who want to buy or sell securities in financial markets. Over time, dealers and investors form trading networks to save time and resources. An emerging field of research investigates how networks form.

  Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Topic(s): Financial markets, Market structure and pricing, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, G, G1, G2, G21, L, L1, L14