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Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title Default Ambiguity: Credit Default Swaps Create New Systemic Risks in Financial Networks
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Steffen Schuldenzucker
  • Sven Seuken
  • Stefano Battiston
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title Management Science
Publisher Institute for Operations Research and the Management Science
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 0025-1909
Volume 66
Number 5
Page Range 1981 - 1998
Date 2020
Abstract Text We study financial networks and reveal a new kind of systemic risk arising from what we call default ambiguity — that is, a situation where it is impossible to decide which banks are in default. Specifically, we study the clearing problem: given a network of banks interconnected by financial contracts, determine which banks are in default and what percentage of their liabilities they can pay. Prior work has shown that when banks can only enter into debt contracts with each other, this problem always has a unique maximal solution. We first prove that when banks can also enter into credit default swaps (CDSs), the clearing problem may have no solution or multiple conflicting solutions, thus leading to default ambiguity. We then derive sufficient conditions on the network structure to eliminate these issues. Finally, we discuss policy implications for the CDS market.
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Digital Object Identifier 10.1287/mnsc.2019.3304
Other Identification Number merlin-id:18332
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