Consumer Credit Regulation and Lender Market Power Staff Working Paper 2024-36 Zachary Bethune, Joaquín Saldain, Eric R. Young We investigate the welfare consequences of consumer credit regulation in a dynamic, heterogeneous-agent model with endogenous lender market power. Lenders post credit offers and borrowers—some informed and others uninformed—apply for credit. We calibrate the model to match characteristics of the unsecured consumer credit market and use the calibrated model to evaluate interest rate ceilings. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Credit and credit aggregates, Financial markets, Interest rates JEL Code(s): D, D1, D15, D4, D43, D6, D60, D8, D83, E, E2, E21, G, G5, G51
Decentralized finance: Innovations and challenges Staff Analytical Note 2023-15 Jonathan Chiu, Hanna Yu Decentralized finance surged in popularity around 2020. We explore its value and limitations and highlight some potential regulatory concerns. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff analytical notes Research Topic(s): Digital currencies and fintech, Financial stability, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): G, G1, G2
Anticipated Technology Shocks: A Re‐Evaluation Using Cointegrated Technologies Staff Working Paper 2017-11 Joel Wagner Two approaches have been taken in the literature to evaluate the relative importance of news shocks as a source of business cycle volatility. The first is an empirical approach that performs a structural vector autoregression to assess the relative importance of news shocks, while the second is a structural-model-based approach. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles, Productivity JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32
Anonymous Credentials: Secret-Free and Quantum-Safe Staff Working Paper 2023-50 Raza Ali Kazmi, Cyrus Minwalla An anonymous credential mechanism is a set of protocols that allows users to obtain credentials from an organization and demonstrate ownership of these credentials without compromising users’ privacy. In this work, we construct the first secret-free and quantum-safe credential mechanism. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Central bank research, Digital currencies and fintech, Payment clearing and settlement systems JEL Code(s): E, E4, E42, G, G2, G21, O, O3, O31
Demographic Origins of the Decline in Labor’s Share Staff Working Paper 2023-20 Andrew Glover, Jacob Short Declining labour market dynamism of workers results in an increasing wedge between their earnings and their marginal product as they age. This wedge and the demographic shift in the earnings shares of older workers can account for 59% of the decline in labor’s share of earnings in the United States. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Labour markets, Productivity JEL Code(s): D, D3, D33, E, E2, E25, J, J1, J3, J6, J62
Growth in Emerging Market Economies and the Commodity Boom of 2003–2008: Evidence from Growth Forecast Revisions Staff Working Paper 2012-8 Elif Arbatli, Garima Vasishtha Demand for industrial raw materials from emerging economies, particularly emerging Asia, is widely believed to have fueled the surge in oil and industrial commodity prices during 2002-2008. The paper first presents a simple storage model in which commodity prices respond to market participant’s changing expectations of the future macroeconomic environment. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Econometric and statistical methods, International topics JEL Code(s): Q, Q4, Q41, Q43
Equilibrium in Two-Sided Markets for Payments: Consumer Awareness and the Welfare Cost of the Interchange Fee Staff Working Paper 2022-15 Kim Huynh, Gradon Nicholls, Oleksandr Shcherbakov We construct and estimate a structural two-stage model of equilibrium in a market for payments in order to quantify the network externalities and identify the main determinants of consumer and merchant decisions. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Bank notes, Digital currencies and fintech, Econometric and statistical methods, Financial services JEL Code(s): C, C5, C51, D, D1, D12, E, E4, E42, L, L1, L14
December 23, 2004 A Taxonomy of Market Efficiency Financial System Review - December 2004 Gregory Bauer Content Type(s): Publications, Financial System Review articles
The Role of Intermediaries in Selection Markets: Evidence from Mortgage Lending Staff Working Paper 2023-12 Jason Allen, Robert Clark, Jean-François Houde, Shaoteng Li, Anna Trubnikova This paper looks at the role mortgage brokers play in helping borrowers generate quotes and qualify for credit. We find that, on average, borrowers that engage with a mortgage broker pay lower interest rates. However, in about 15% of cases, borrowers are steered towards longer amortizing mortgages than they would have chosen absent a broker. Since mortgages with longer amortization have higher total interest costs over the entire life of the mortgage, this steering is expensive. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Financial institutions, Financial services, Market structure and pricing JEL Code(s): D, D4, G, G2, G21, L, L2
Cyclical Behavior of Debt and Equity Using a Panel of Canadian Firms Staff Working Paper 2007-44 Francisco Covas, Wouter den Haan We document the cyclical behavior of debt, equity, and retained earnings for different firm categories using firm-level Canadian data. Content Type(s): Staff research, Staff working papers Research Topic(s): Business fluctuations and cycles JEL Code(s): E, E3, E32, G, G3, G32