IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/24171.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Intermediation as Rent Extraction

Author

Listed:
  • Maryam Farboodi
  • Gregor Jarosch
  • Guido Menzio

Abstract

We propose a theory of intermediation as rent extraction, and explore its implications for the extent of intermediation, welfare and policy. A frictional asset market is populated by agents who are heterogeneous with respect to their bargaining skills, as some can commit to take-it-or-leave-it offers and others cannot. In equilibrium, agents with commitment power act as intermediaries and those without act as final users. Agents with commitment trade on behalf of agents without commitment to extract more rents from third parties. If agents can invest in a commitment technology, there are multiple equilibria differing in the fraction of intermediaries. Equilibria with more intermediaries have lower welfare and any equilibrium with intermediation is inefficient. Intermediation grows as trading frictions become small and during times when interest rates are low. A simple transaction tax can restore efficiency by eliminating any scope for bargaining.

Suggested Citation

  • Maryam Farboodi & Gregor Jarosch & Guido Menzio, 2017. "Intermediation as Rent Extraction," NBER Working Papers 24171, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:24171
    Note: EFG
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w24171.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rubinstein, Ariel, 1982. "Perfect Equilibrium in a Bargaining Model," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(1), pages 97-109, January.
    2. Lester, Benjamin & Weill, Pierre-Olivier & Hugonnier, Julien, 2022. "Heterogeneity in decentralized asset markets," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 17(3), July.
    3. James Tobin, 1978. "A Proposal for International Monetary Reform," Eastern Economic Journal, Eastern Economic Association, vol. 4(3-4), pages 153-159, Jul/Oct.
    4. Richard C. Green & Burton Hollifield & Norman Schürhoff, 2007. "Financial Intermediation and the Costs of Trading in an Opaque Market," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(2), pages 275-314.
    5. Choi, Michael & Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2024. "Foundations of market power in monetary economies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    6. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Wright, Randall, 1989. "On Money as a Medium of Exchange," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(4), pages 927-954, August.
    7. Robert Shimer & Gregor Jarosch & Maryam Farboodi, 2016. "Meeting Technologies in Decentralized Asset Markets," 2016 Meeting Papers 844, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    8. Ricardo Lagos & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2009. "Liquidity in Asset Markets With Search Frictions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(2), pages 403-426, March.
    9. Greg Kaplan & Guido Menzio, 2016. "Shopping Externalities and Self-Fulfilling Unemployment Fluctuations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 124(3), pages 771-825.
    10. Darrell Duffie, 2012. "Over-The-Counter Markets," Introductory Chapters, in: Dark Markets: Asset Pricing and Information Transmission in Over-the-Counter Markets, Princeton University Press.
    11. Ken Burdett & Melvyn G. Coles, 1997. "Marriage and Class," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(1), pages 141-168.
    12. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g8grh35j2 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Semih Üslü, 2019. "Pricing and Liquidity in Decentralized Asset Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 87(6), pages 2079-2140, November.
    14. Zachary Bethune & Bruno Sultanum & Nicholas Trachter, 2022. "An Information-based Theory of Financial Intermediation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(5), pages 2381-2444.
    15. Gabriel Jiménez & Steven Ongena & José‐Luis Peydró & Jesús Saurina, 2014. "Hazardous Times for Monetary Policy: What Do Twenty‐Three Million Bank Loans Say About the Effects of Monetary Policy on Credit Risk‐Taking?," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 82(2), pages 463-505, March.
    16. Fabien Postel-Vinay & Jean-Marc Robin, 2002. "Equilibrium Wage Dispersion with Worker and Employer Heterogeneity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(6), pages 2295-2350, November.
    17. Ed Nosal & Yuet‐Yee Wong & Randall Wright, 2015. "More on Middlemen: Equilibrium Entry and Efficiency in Intermediated Markets," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 47(S2), pages 7-37, June.
    18. Maryam Farboodi & Gregor Jarosch & Robert Shimer, 2023. "The Emergence of Market Structure," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(1), pages 261-292.
    19. Mortensen, Dale T, 1982. "Property Rights and Efficiency in Mating, Racing, and Related Games," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(5), pages 968-979, December.
    20. Di Maggio, Marco & Kermani, Amir & Song, Zhaogang, 2017. "The value of trading relations in turbulent times," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 266-284.
    21. Raghuram G. Rajan, 2006. "Has Finance Made the World Riskier?," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 12(4), pages 499-533, September.
    22. Arthur J. Hosios, 1990. "On The Efficiency of Matching and Related Models of Search and Unemployment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 57(2), pages 279-298.
    23. Farboodi, Maryam & Jarosch, Gregor & Menzio, Guido & Wiriadinata, Ursula, 2025. "Intermediation as rent extraction," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    24. Dale T. Mortensen & Christopher A. Pissarides, 1994. "Job Creation and Job Destruction in the Theory of Unemployment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 61(3), pages 397-415.
    25. Summers, L.H. & Summers, V.P., 1989. "When Financial Markets Work Too Well : A Cautious Case For A Securities Transactions Tax," Papers t12, Columbia - Center for Futures Markets.
    26. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/c8dmi8nm4pdjkuc9g8grh35j2 is not listed on IDEAS
    27. Cociuba, Simona E. & Shukayev, Malik & Ueberfeldt, Alexander, 2016. "Collateralized borrowing and risk taking at low interest rates," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 62-83.
    28. Burton Hollifield & Artem Neklyudov & Chester Spatt, 2017. "Bid-Ask Spreads, Trading Networks, and the Pricing of Securitizations," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 30(9), pages 3048-3085.
    29. Diamond, Peter A, 1982. "Aggregate Demand Management in Search Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 90(5), pages 881-894, October.
    30. Fabien Postel-Vinay & Jean-Marc Robin, 2002. "Equilibrium Wage Dispersion with Worker and Employer Heterogeneity," Post-Print hal-03458567, HAL.
    31. Ricardo Lagos & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2007. "Search in Asset Markets: Market Structure, Liquidity, and Welfare," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 97(2), pages 198-202, May.
    32. Burdett, Kenneth & Mortensen, Dale T, 1998. "Wage Differentials, Employer Size, and Unemployment," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 39(2), pages 257-273, May.
    33. Masters, Adrian, 2008. "Unpleasant middlemen," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 73-86, October.
    34. Diamond, Peter A., 1971. "A model of price adjustment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 156-168, June.
    35. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/dc0ckec3fcb29ms985085gkbp is not listed on IDEAS
    36. Stiglitz, J.E., 1989. "Using Tax Policy To Curb Speculative Short-Term Trading," Papers t2, Columbia - Center for Futures Markets.
    37. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/dc0ckec3fcb29ms985085gkbp is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Lester, Benjamin & Weill, Pierre-Olivier & Hugonnier, Julien, 2022. "Heterogeneity in decentralized asset markets," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 17(3), July.
    2. Javier Donna & Andre Trindade & Pedro Pereira & Tiago Pires, 2018. "Measuring the Welfare of Intermediation in Vertical Markets," 2018 Meeting Papers 984, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    3. Farboodi, Maryam & Jarosch, Gregor & Menzio, Guido & Wiriadinata, Ursula, 2025. "Intermediation as rent extraction," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    4. Jérôme Dugast & Semih Uslu & Pierre-Olivier Weil, 2018. "Platform Trading with an OTC Market Fringe," Post-Print hal-02104107, HAL.
    5. Javier Donna & Andre Trindade & Pedro Pereira & Tiago Pires, 2018. "Measuring the Welfare of Intermediation in Vertical Markets," 2018 Meeting Papers 984, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    6. Zachary Bethune & Bruno Sultanum & Nicholas Trachter, 2019. "Asset Issuance in Over-the-Counter Markets," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 33, pages 4-29, July.
    7. Maryam Farboodi & Gregor Jarosch & Robert Shimer, 2023. "The Emergence of Market Structure," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 90(1), pages 261-292.
    8. Semyon Malamud & Andreas Schrimpf, 2016. "Intermediation Markups and Monetary Policy Passthrough," Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper Series 16-75, Swiss Finance Institute.
    9. Julien Hugonnier & Benjamin Lester & Pierre-Olivier Weill, 2020. "Frictional Intermediation in Over-the-Counter Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 87(3), pages 1432-1469.
    10. Gabrovski, Miroslav & Kospentaris, Ioannis, 2021. "Intermediation in over-the-counter markets with price transparency," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    11. Jérôme Dugast & Semih Üslü & Pierre-Olivier Weill, 2022. "A Theory of Participation in OTC and Centralized Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(6), pages 3223-3266.
    12. Zachary Bethune & Bruno Sultanum & Nicholas Trachter, 2022. "An Information-based Theory of Financial Intermediation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(5), pages 2381-2444.
    13. Javier D. Donna & Pedro Pereira & Tiago Pires & André Trindade, 2022. "Measuring the Welfare of Intermediaries," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(11), pages 8083-8115, November.
    14. Cohen, Assa & Kargar, Mahyar & Lester, Benjamin & Weill, Pierre-Olivier, 2024. "Inventory, market making, and liquidity in OTC markets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    15. Chao Hu & Damian C. Adams & Huachao Feng & Jing Cheng, 2023. "Refining the Rent Dissipation Model in Land Use: Application to Agricultural Insurance in China," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, January.
    16. Donna, Javier D. & Pereira, Pedro & Pires, Tiago & Trindade, Andre, 2018. "Measuring the Welfare of Intermediaries in Vertical Markets," MPRA Paper 90465, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    17. Choi, Michael & Rocheteau, Guillaume, 2024. "Foundations of market power in monetary economies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 222(C).
    18. Marco Macchiavelli & Xing (Alex) Zhou, 2022. "Funding Liquidity and Market Liquidity: The Broker-Dealer Perspective," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(5), pages 3379-3398, May.

    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. Zachary Bethune & Bruno Sultanum & Nicholas Trachter, 2019. "Asset Issuance in Over-the-Counter Markets," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 33, pages 4-29, July.
    2. Gabrovski, Miroslav & Kospentaris, Ioannis, 2021. "Intermediation in over-the-counter markets with price transparency," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    3. Weill, Pierre-Olivier, 2020. "The search theory of OTC markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 14847, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    4. Zachary Bethune & Bruno Sultanum & Nicholas Trachter, 2022. "An Information-based Theory of Financial Intermediation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 89(5), pages 2381-2444.
    5. Nosal, Ed & Wong, Yuet-Yee & Wright, Randall, 2019. "Intermediation in markets for goods and markets for assets," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 876-906.
    6. Nobuhiro Kiyotaki & Ricardo Lagos, 2007. "A Model of Job and Worker Flows," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(5), pages 770-819, October.
    7. Guillaume Rocheteau & Pierre‐Olivier Weill, 2011. "Liquidity in Frictional Asset Markets," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 43(s2), pages 261-282, October.
    8. Lester, Benjamin & Weill, Pierre-Olivier & Hugonnier, Julien, 2022. "Heterogeneity in decentralized asset markets," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 17(3), July.
    9. Ricardo Lagos & Guillaume Rocheteau, 2009. "Liquidity in Asset Markets With Search Frictions," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(2), pages 403-426, March.
    10. Richard Rogerson & Robert Shimer & Randall Wright, 2005. "Search-Theoretic Models of the Labor Market: A Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 43(4), pages 959-988, December.
    11. Pissarides, Christopher A., 2015. "Dale Mortensen: An appreciation," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 1-6.
    12. Williamson, Stephen & Wright, Randall, 2010. "New Monetarist Economics: Models," Handbook of Monetary Economics, in: Benjamin M. Friedman & Michael Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Monetary Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 2, pages 25-96, Elsevier.
    13. Duffie, Darrell & Sun, Yeneng, 2012. "The exact law of large numbers for independent random matching," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 147(3), pages 1105-1139.
    14. repec:eee:labchp:v:3:y:1999:i:pb:p:2567-2627 is not listed on IDEAS
    15. Duffie, Darrell & Qiao, Lei & Sun, Yeneng, 2018. "Dynamic directed random matching," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 124-183.
    16. Rogerson, Richard & Shimer, Robert, 2011. "Search in Macroeconomic Models of the Labor Market," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 7, pages Pages: 61, Elsevier.
    17. Artem Neklyudov, 2019. "Bid-Ask Spreads and the Over-the-Counter Interdealer Markets: Core and Peripheral Dealers," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 33, pages 57-84, July.
    18. Terrence Hendershott & Dan Li & Dmitry Livdan & Norman Schürhoff, 2020. "Relationship Trading in Over‐the‐Counter Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(2), pages 683-734, April.
    19. Burdett, Kenneth & Trejos, Alberto & Wright, Randall, 2017. "A new suggestion for simplifying the theory of money," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 172(C), pages 423-450.
    20. Berentsen, Aleksander & Huber, Samuel & Marchesiani, Alessandro, 2016. "The societal benefit of a financial transaction tax," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 303-323.
    21. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Lagos, Ricardo & Wright, Randall, 2016. "Introduction to the symposium issue on money and liquidity," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-9.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D40 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:24171. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.