Market participants' risk attitudes, wealth and portfolio composition influence their positions in a pegged foreign currency and, therefore, may have important effects on the sustainability of currency pegs. We analyze such effects in a global game model of currency crises with continuous action...

We analyze the effect of risk aversion, wealth and portfolios on the behavior of investors in a global game model of currency crises with continuous action choices. The model generates a rich set of striking theoretical predictions. For example, risk aversion makes currency crises significantly...

This paper presents a theory of institutional specialization in which some countries uphold the rule of law while others choose extractive institutions, even when countries are ex-ante identical. The driving force of specialization is that for incumbents in each country, the first steps to the...

We argue that the sheer rational expectation about some typical behaviors of retail investors can induce large and persistent overpricing in popular high-risk stocks. It is well-known that retail investors like distressed stocks. Hence, in a distress scenario, retail investors' increased demand,...

This paper argues that short selling might give rise to bubbles that would otherwise not exist in equilibrium. It is crucial for the argument that short selling is not the same as issuing an asset: it may require buying the stock later on. An asset with no fundamental value might be traded at...