Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/60755 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
Staff Report No. 548
Publisher: 
Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York, NY
Abstract: 
This is the first paper to test the asset pricing implication of leverage in a laboratory. We show that as theory predicts, leverage increases asset prices: When an asset can be used as collateral (that is, when the asset can be bought on margin), its price goes up. This increase is significant, and quantitatively close to what theory predicts. However, important deviations from the theory arise in the laboratory. First, the demand for the asset shifts when it can be used as a collateral, even though agents do not exhaust their purchasing power when collateralized borrowing is not allowed. Second, the spread between collateralizable and noncollateralizable assets does not increase during crises, in contrast to what theory predicts.
Subjects: 
leverage
asset pricing
experimental economics
JEL: 
A10
C90
G12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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