Decentralized markets attract large amounts of trade volume, even though they exhibit frictions absent in centralized exchanges. We develop a model with asymmetric information and expertise acquisition where some traders try to exploit any market structure to inefficiently screen their...

We propose a parsimonious model of over-the-counter trading with asymmetric information to rationalize the existence of intermediation chains that stand between buyers and sellers of assets. Trading an asset through several heterogeneously informed intermediaries can preserve the efficiency of...

I propose a tractable asset pricing model to study distressed firms' returns when agents dynamically learn about firm solvency and make optimal default decisions. As distressed firms' access to finance depends on investors' information quality, the future speed of learning critically affects...

I develop an analytically tractable dynamic asset pricing model to study expected returns of financially distressed firms in the presence of learning about firm fundamentals and endogenous information acquisition by active investors.The model reveals that learning and information acquisition...

We model firms' optimal allocation of resources between surplus-creating (a.k.a., productive) activities and surplus-appropriating (a.k.a., rent-seeking) activities. We show that economy- or industry-wide technological progresses, such as the recent improvements in processing big data, induce a...