| The primary focus of this dissertation is to study the connections between the auction mechanism used to sell Treasuries securities and the secondary market activity, when auction participants can trade the auctioned securities among themselves. I use a game theoretically framework where participants understand the market rules and behave strategically so as to maximize their returns. The model is capable of explaining puzzling empirical patterns from the U.S. Treasury market and provides policy implications. In the third chapter of the dissertation I use tools developed by the auction theory to analyze corporate organizations capital structure decisions. For a firm's perspective, using debt to finance new investments could be cheaper than using equity. Nevertheless, a higher debt level increases the risks the investment will be liquidated before it yields the promised dividends. The chapter studies firms' optimal decisions when facing the trade-off between debt and equity and its implications on equilibrium prices and interest rates on the financial market. |
