Conglomerates, trade credit arrangements, and banks are all instances of financial intermediation. However, these institutions differ significantly in the extent to which the projects financed absorb aggregate intermediary risk, in whether or not intermediation is carried out by a financial...

<link rid="b12">Diamond and Dybvig (1983)</link> show that while demand-deposit contracts let banks provide liquidity, they expose them to panic-based bank runs. However, their model does not provide tools to derive the probability of the bank-run equilibrium, and thus cannot determine whether banks increase welfare...

This paper empirically investigates directors' ownership in the mutual fund industry. Our results show that, contrary to anecdotal evidence, a significant portion of directors hold shares in the funds they oversee. Ownership patterns are broadly consistent with an optimal contracting...