This dissertation examines the construction and regulation of over-the-counter derivatives markets before and after the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. It addresses two questions: How did the market for derivatives traded outside traditional exchanges grow so large and crisis-prone with so little public regulation? And, why, given derivatives’ contribution to the...
In "Optimal Delegation" I analyze the design of decision rules by a principal who faces an informed but biased agent and who is unable to commit to contingent transfers. The contracting problem reduces to a delegation problem in which the principal commits to a set of decisions from which the...