Papers & Opinions

Corporate finance | Electoral politics | Theory

Corporate Political Interests in Absentia

Paper

Posted on 5 October 2023

By Stylianos Papageorgiou

We formalize Zingales' (2017) argument about the link between corporate economic characteristics and political influence in a setup that exhibits an inverse relationship between citizens' participation in production and the...
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Banking | Electoral politics | Theory

Bailouts by Popular Demand

Paper

Posted on 4 August 2022

By Stylianos Papageorgiou

We characterize conditions under which the majority of voters supports a bailout despite incurring bailout expenditures. This yields inefficiently high investments when economic prospects are good. When economic prospects are...
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Financial markets | Regulation | Theory

Clinging Onto the Cliff: A Model of Financial Misconduct

Paper

Posted on 17 June 2022

By AJ Chen

We propose a novel pressure-based model of financial misconduct. We interpret the robust empirical findings of a high “success rate of crime” as evidence of skewness in the payoff of...
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Corporate finance | Theory

Group-Managed Real Options

Paper

Posted on 14 June 2022

By ALI LAZRAK

We study a standard real-option problem in which sequential decisions are made through voting by a group of members with heterogeneous beliefs. We show that, when facing both investment and...
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Electoral politics | Financial development | Theory

Collective and Individual Investments in Financial Literacy

Paper

Posted on 10 June 2022

By Stylianos Papageorgiou

A collective and an individual investment in financial literacy, plus intrinsic skills, contribute to each household's financial literacy. We show that low- and high-skilled households oppose the collective investment, contrary...
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Electoral politics | Political institutions | Theory

Leaping into the Dark: A Model of Policy Gambles with Self-Fulfilling Features

Paper

Posted on 22 November 2021

By Kartik Anand

We examine why rational voters support risky “policy gambles”, even when detrimental to welfare, over maintaining a safe status quo. We present a model of electoral competition with two groups...
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Banking | Special interest politics | Theory

Bank Influence at a Discount

Paper

Posted on 8 November 2021

By Stylianos Papageorgiou

In a general equilibrium framework, we study the cost incurred by banks to ''buy" influence on capital regulation via campaign contributions. Our central result is that banks buy influence at...
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Corporate finance | Regulation | Theory

Voting and Trading: The Shareholder’s Dilemma

Paper

Posted on 22 October 2021

By Shaoting Pi

We study firm governance when shareholders strategically vote and buy/sell shares. We find that voting for the better policy maximizes portfolio value only when pivotal; otherwise, it is better to...
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Empirics | Financial markets | Political institutions | Theory

Democratization, Inequality, and Risk Premia

Paper

Posted on 21 September 2021

By Max Miller

Risk premia are significantly elevated during periods of democratization in a cross-country panel of equity data covering 85 countries over 200 years, despite little evidence of a negative effect on...
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Corporate finance | Political institutions | Theory

Voting in Shareholders Meetings

Paper

Posted on 20 September 2021

By Laurent Bouton

This paper studies voting in shareholders meetings. We focus on the informational efficiency of different voting mechanisms, taking into account that they affect both management's incentives before the meeting and...
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Banking | Central banking | Theory

Monetary Policy with Reserves and CBDC: Optimality, Equivalence, and Politics

Paper

Posted on 11 August 2021

By Dirk Niepelt

We analyze the introduction of retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) into a two-tiered monetary system. Deposits, reserves, and CBDC differ in terms of operating costs and liquidity. We identify the optimal...
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Empirics | Financial markets | Theory

Political Cycles and Stock Returns

Paper

Posted on 18 July 2021

By Lubos Pastor

We develop a model of political cycles driven by time-varying risk aversion. Agents choose to work in the public or private sector and to vote Democrat or Republican. In equilibrium,...
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Electoral politics | Financial markets | Theory

Inequality Aversion, Populism, and the Backlash Against Globalization

Paper

Posted on 12 July 2021

By Lubos Pastor

Motivated by the recent rise of populism in western democracies, we develop a tractable equilibrium model in which a populist backlash emerges endogenously in a strong economy. In the model,...
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Central banking | Political institutions | Theory

The Euro as a Diverse Monetary Union

Paper

Posted on 21 May 2021

By Oscar Soons

We analyze the political economy causes and consequences of a monetary unification among countries with different institutional quality. Before a common currency countries with stronger institutions have more efficient public...
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Banking | Electoral politics | Theory

The Political Economy of Prudential Regulation

Paper

Posted on 21 May 2021

By Magdalena Rola-Janicka

This paper introduces a voting model into a setting with negative borrowing externalities to study voter preferences for prudential regulation. Voters internalize the general equilibrium impact of prudential policy on...
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