Affiliation:
1. Department of Economics, University of Wisconsin–Madison (email: )
2. Department of Economics and School of Management, University College London (email: )
Abstract
Advances in market-clearing technology for multiple assets and synthetic products present alternative ways to leverage complementarities and substitutabilites in asset payoffs. This paper compares their equilibrium and welfare effects. In competitive markets, either instrument can mimic the efficient design. When traders have price impact, however, synthetic products and market-clearing technology provide separate instruments for impacting markets’ performance and can generate synergies or trade-offs. Neither instrument can generally reproduce the other’s payoffs state by state. Moreover, innovation in market clearing renders additional synthetic products nonredundant. Our analysis points to the advantages of each type of innovation while also exposing potential risks. (JEL D44, D47, G11, G12, G13, O31)
Publisher
American Economic Association
Subject
General Economics, Econometrics and Finance