IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v109y2019i1p271-313.html

Optimal Regulation of Financial Intermediaries

Author

Listed:
  • Sebastian Di Tella

Abstract

I characterize the optimal financial regulation policy in an economy where financial intermediaries trade capital assets on behalf of households, but must retain an equity stake to align incentives. Financial regulation is necessary because intermediaries cannot be excluded from privately trading in capital markets. They don't internalize that high asset prices force everyone to bear more risk. The socially optimal allocation can be implemented with a tax on asset holdings. I derive a sufficient statistic for the externality in terms of observable variables, valid for heterogeneous intermediaries and asset classes, and arbitrary aggregate shocks. I use market data on leverage and volatility of intermediaries' equity to measure the externality, which co-moves with the business cycle.

Suggested Citation

  • Sebastian Di Tella, 2019. "Optimal Regulation of Financial Intermediaries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 271-313, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:109:y:2019:i:1:p:271-313
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/aer.20161488
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/aer.20161488
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/content/file?id=8575
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrieve=5ojDPbc7MIrzdfVaoNbWdaGTlWTNXARn
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/attachments?retrieve=eLhrEMI8ibjUmTlelJX8kmKsESlNyVJb
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Duffie, Darrel & Lions, Pierre-Louis, 1992. "PDE solutions of stochastic differential utility," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 577-606.
    2. Duffie, Darrell & Epstein, Larry G, 1992. "Asset Pricing with Stochastic Differential Utility," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 5(3), pages 411-436.
    3. PETER M. DeMARZO & YULIY SANNIKOV, 2006. "Optimal Security Design and Dynamic Capital Structure in a Continuous‐Time Agency Model," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(6), pages 2681-2724, December.
    4. Duffie, Darrell & Epstein, Larry G, 1992. "Stochastic Differential Utility," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(2), pages 353-394, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Fève, Patrick & Sanchez, Pablo Garcia & Moura, Alban & Pierrard, Olivier, 2021. "Costly default and skewed business cycles," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Dimitrios Gounopoulos & Georgios Loukopoulos & Panagiotis Loukopoulos, 2024. "Corporate political activism, information transparency and IPO compliance costs," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(1-2), pages 240-275, January.
    3. Orame, Andrea & Ramcharan, Rodney & Robatto, Roberto, 2023. "Quantitative easing, accounting and prudential frameworks, and bank lending," ESRB Working Paper Series 144, European Systemic Risk Board.
    4. Peng, Hongfeng & Ji, Jiao & Sun, Hanwen & Xu, Haofeng, 2023. "Legal enforcement and fintech credit: International evidence," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 214-231.
    5. Pegoraro, Stefano, 2024. "Risk aversion with nothing to lose," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    6. Xu, Su Xiu & Guo, Ren-Yong & Zhai, Yue & Feng, Jianghong & Ning, Yu, 2024. "Toward a positive compensation policy for rail transport via mechanism design: The case of China Railway Express," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 322-342.
    7. Huibing Cheng & Shanshui Zheng, 2022. "Incentive Compensation Mechanism for the Infrastructure Construction of Electric Vehicle Battery Swapping Station under Asymmetric Information," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-18, June.
    8. Paymon Khorrami & Fernando Mendo, 2021. "Rational Sentiments and Financial Frictions," Working Papers Central Bank of Chile 928, Central Bank of Chile.
    9. Fève, Patrick & Sanchez, Pablo Garcia & Moura, Alban & Pierrard, Olivier, 2021. "Costly default and skewed business cycles," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    10. Iachan, Felipe S. & Silva, Dejanir & Zi, Chao, 2022. "Under-diversification and idiosyncratic risk externalities," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 1227-1250.
    11. Jie Yan & Hailing Wang, 2025. "Does the Development of Digital Finance Enhance Urban Energy Resilience? Evidence from Machine Learning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-25, July.
    12. Kurlat, Pablo, 2021. "Investment externalities in models of fire sales," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 102-118.
    13. Antoine Camous & Alejandro Van der Ghote, 2025. "Evaluating the Financial Instability Hypothesis: a Positive and Normative Analysis of Leveraged Risk-Taking and Extrapolative Expectations," Working papers 1009, Banque de France.
    14. Benjamin Fan & Edward Qiao & Anran Jiao & Zhouzhou Gu & Wenhao Li & Lu Lu, 2025. "Deep Learning for Solving and Estimating Dynamic Macro-finance Models," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 65(6), pages 3885-3921, June.
    15. Gregor Schwerhoff & Ottmar Edenhofer & Marc Fleurbaey, 2020. "Taxation Of Economic Rents," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(2), pages 398-423, April.
    16. Adriana Grasso & Juan Passadore & Facundo Piguillem, 2024. "The Macroeconomics of Hedging Income Shares," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 54, October.
    17. Benjamin Fan & Edward Qiao & Anran Jiao & Zhouzhou Gu & Wenhao Li & Lu Lu, 2023. "Deep Learning for Solving and Estimating Dynamic Macro-Finance Models," Papers 2305.09783, arXiv.org.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shi, Huihong & Mu, Congming & Yang, Jinqiang & Huang, Wenli, 2021. "A Sino-US comparative analysis of the hi-tech entrepreneurial model," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 953-966.
    2. Cetemen, Doruk & Feng, Felix Zhiyu & Urgun, Can, 2023. "Renegotiation and dynamic inconsistency: Contracting with non-exponential discounting," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    3. Doruk Cetemen & Felix Zhiyu Feng & Can Urgun, 2019. "Contracting with Non-Exponential Discounting: Moral Hazard and Dynamic Inconsistency," Working Papers 2019-17, Princeton University. Economics Department..
    4. Wang, Chong & Wang, Neng & Yang, Jinqiang, 2012. "A unified model of entrepreneurship dynamics," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 1-23.
    5. Campbell, John Y. & Chacko, George & Rodriguez, Jorge & Viceira, Luis M., 2004. "Strategic asset allocation in a continuous-time VAR model," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 28(11), pages 2195-2214, October.
    6. Samuel Drapeau & Asgar Jamneshan, 2014. "Conditional Preference Orders and their Numerical Representations," Papers 1410.5466, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2016.
    7. Fabio Antonelli & Carlo Mancini, 2016. "Consumption optimization for recursive utility in a jump-diffusion model," Decisions in Economics and Finance, Springer;Associazione per la Matematica, vol. 39(2), pages 293-310, November.
    8. Roger J. A. Laeven & John G. M. Schoenmakers & Nikolaus F. F. Schweizer & Mitja Stadje, 2020. "Robust Multiple Stopping -- A Pathwise Duality Approach," Papers 2006.01802, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2021.
    9. Fahrenwaldt, Matthias Albrecht & Jensen, Ninna Reitzel & Steffensen, Mogens, 2020. "Nonrecursive separation of risk and time preferences," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 95-108.
    10. Dirk Becherer & Wilfried Kuissi-Kamdem & Olivier Menoukeu-Pamen, 2023. "Optimal consumption with labor income and borrowing constraints for recursive preferences," Working Papers hal-04017143, HAL.
    11. Kraft, Holger & Weiss, Farina, 2023. "Pandemic portfolio choice," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 305(1), pages 451-462.
    12. Dominika Czyz & Karolina Safarzynska, 2023. "Catastrophic Damages and the Optimal Carbon Tax Under Loss Aversion," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(2), pages 303-340, June.
    13. Nicolae B. Gârleanu & Stavros Panageas, 2020. "Heterogeneity and Asset Prices: A Different Approach," NBER Working Papers 26607, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Zhang, Huanjun & Yan, Zhiguo, 2020. "Backward stochastic optimal control with mixed deterministic controller and random controller and its applications in linear-quadratic control," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 369(C).
    15. Joshua Lanier & Bin Miao & John K.-H. Quah & Songfa Zhong, 2024. "Intertemporal Consumption with Risk: A Revealed Preference Analysis," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 106(5), pages 1319-1333, September.
    16. Bjørn Eraker & Ivan Shaliastovich, 2008. "An Equilibrium Guide To Designing Affine Pricing Models," Mathematical Finance, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(4), pages 519-543, October.
    17. Rosazza Gianin, Emanuela, 2006. "Risk measures via g-expectations," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 19-34, August.
    18. Aït-Sahalia, Yacine & Matthys, Felix, 2019. "Robust consumption and portfolio policies when asset prices can jump," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 179(C), pages 1-56.
    19. Huang, Jianhui & Wang, Guangchen & Wu, Zhen, 2010. "Optimal premium policy of an insurance firm: Full and partial information," Insurance: Mathematics and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 208-215, October.
    20. Smith, William T., 1999. "Risk, the Spirit of Capitalism and Growth: The Implications of a Preference for Capital," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 241-262, April.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates
    • G20 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - General
    • G31 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Capital Budgeting; Fixed Investment and Inventory Studies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aea:aecrev:v:109:y:2019:i:1:p:271-313. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.