This study investigates the existence of political rents in bank lending, using a comprehensive loan-level data set of the universe of commercial loans in Mexico from 2003 to 2012. Identification relies on changes in the state of origin of a senate committee chairman as a source of exogenous...

We investigate whether recently high and consequently rapidly decreasing U.S. house prices have been justified by fundamental factors such as personal income, population, house rent, stock market wealth, building costs, and mortgage rate. We first conduct the standard unit root and cointegration...

This paper addresses whether exchange rates respond to changes in expectations of future U.S. monetary policy when no actual monetary policy changes occur. We employ data on Federal funds futures contracts for extracting a measure of policy expectations, control for the surprise element of...

Contrasting proposals have recently emerged concerning the need to regulate the Canadian credit card market. The National Liberal Caucus Task Force on Financial Services recommended that interest-rate ceilings be imposed on credit cards in Canada, while the MacKay Commission on Financial...

There are two types of stock price manipulation examined in the theoretical literature: (1) insider trading, which involves private information that is true and (2) the public spreading of fraudulent false information. While there is a large empirical literature on insider trading, this is the...