Paul Woolley Centre
The Asset Management programme examines how different types of agents interact in financial markets; how asset prices are formed and relate to economic fundamentals; how price movements impact firms’ investment and the macro-economy; and how regulatory policies affect market outcomes and economic welfare. A large part of the research in the asset management programme is currently conducted within the Paul Woolley Centre---that research departs from the Arrow-Debreu view of frictionless markets and emphasizes the role of financial institutions and their managers’ incentives in influencing prices and allocations.
Financing the Real Economy
The programme investigates the links between the financial sector and the development of the real economy. The first area of research focuses on the effect of banking sector reform and the introduction of innovations in the bank financing of corporations and start-up firms, including through fintech solutions. A second area studies the role that financial markets play in developing large public projects, including in the greening of the economy and during large economic downturns. The third area focuses on the challenges surrounding firm dynamics, such as skills and traits of successful entrepreneurs, the environment conducive to their development, and the importance of different financial options available to finance innovation (bank finance, angel finance, private equity, crowdsourcing, and venture capital).
Systemic Risk Centre
Systemic risk encompasses the risk that the financial system fails to facilitate the safe and efficient allocation of financial resources needed to serve the real economy. It is the risk that the system is not working properly. In the systemic risk programme, currently structured around the ESRC-funded Systemic Risk Centre (SRC), we study such risks, which may also trigger or amplify the next financial crisis, and we seek to develop tools to help policymakers and financial institutions become better prepared and increase both resilience and effectiveness.
