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Banks as Secret Keepers

Author

Listed:
  • Tri Vi Dang

    (Department of Economics, Columbia University)

  • Gary Gorton

    (Department of Economics, Yale University)

  • Beng Holmstrom

    (Department of Economics, MIT and NBER)

  • Guillermo Ordonez

    (Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania)

Abstract

Banks are optimally opaque institutions. They produce debt for use as a transaction medium (bank money), which requires that information about the backing assets – loans – not be revealed, so that bank money does not fluctuate in value, reducing the efficiency of trade. This need for opacity conflicts with the production of information about investment projects, needed for allocative efficiency. Intermediaries exist to hide such information, so banks select portfolios of information-insensitive assets. For the economy as a whole, firms endogenously separate into bank finance and capital market/stock market finance depending on the cost of producing information about their projects.

Suggested Citation

  • Tri Vi Dang & Gary Gorton & Beng Holmstrom & Guillermo Ordonez, 2014. "Banks as Secret Keepers," PIER Working Paper Archive 14-022, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    • Handle: RePEc:pen:papers:14-022
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Banks vs. Capital Markets; Financial Intermediation; Information and Opacity; Optimal Portfolio; Private Money;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy

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