Contact Information Rodolfo G. Campos IESE Business School Camino del Cerro del Aguila, 3 (Ctra. de Castilla, km 5,180) 28023 Madrid (Spain)

Research

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Risk-Sharing and the Probability of Crises (Job market paper)  -  revised November 10, 2007

Abstract In this paper I add heterogeneous agents and risk-sharing opportunities to a coordination game which represents deposit withdrawals from the banking system. I find that heterogeneity in risk aversion within the population amplifies the effect of the business cycle on the probability of a bank run. In particular, risk-sharing enhances the likelihood of bank runs during bad times. The novel insight is that when there is a risk-sharing motive, fundamentals drive not only individual behavior, but also which individuals are more relevant for the likelihood of a crisis. This mechanism has important consequences for the way we think about policy questions. In the paper I discuss three such implications in detail: (1) I show that a policy that facilitates access to banking for previously unbanked individuals generates externalities, and may even decrease welfare of the least risk averse group in the population. (2) I characterize the bias in the estimation of the probability of a banking crisis when heterogeneity is neglected. (3) I show how to correctly calculate the social value of deposit insurance when depositors differ in their risk aversion.

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A Theory of Dismantling a Joint Ownership: The role of the Venture Capitalist in an IPO (with Gonzalo A. Islas and Wai Kei "Raphael" Lam)  -  January 2007

Abstract When a firm goes public, the joint ownership of the firm is dismantled asynchronously, as venture capitalists are able to sell all of their shares soon after an IPO while the entrepreneur usually stays in the firm for a longer period. This paper captures this empirical fact by introducing a model of the IPO decision that explicitly considers the interaction of different block-holders of the firm at the time of an IPO. We focus on the case of a venture capitalist and a single entrepreneur. We find that in our model the privately optimal size of the IPO depends on the pre-IPO ownership structure. We characterize the nature of this dependence and perform an empirical analysis for the US IPO market for the period 1994-2005. The data confirm that the unsynchronized dismantlement of a joint venture affects the size of an IPO in a way consistent with our model. Our empirical results suggest that the decision of what fraction of the firm to sell is distorted in the direction generally favored by the venture capitalist. JEL codes: G32 G34 D23 L2 Keywords: Venture Capital, Initial Public Offering, Joint Ownership.

Work in Progress

Political Swings (with Matias Iaryczower)

Risk Aversion, Marriage and Fertility (with Iliana Reggio)

Financial Fragility as a Rationale for Securitization (with Gonzalo Islas)

Teaching	Download Teaching Statement
I have taught graduate courses in Game Theory and Macroeconomics and undergraduate courses in Game Theory, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and General Equilibrium Theory.	Download Teaching Evaluations

Introduction to Game Theory (6 week course)

During the summer months of 2005 and 2006 I held a position as Lecturer in Summer Sessions at UCLA. I taught "Introduction to Game Theory" (Economics 106G). This course is usually taught during a full quarter and has a weekly TA sessions to go over practice problems.
During the summer it needed to be compressed into 6 weeks and be taught without a TA. I decided to focus on a few core concepts (syllabus). I chose Joel Watson's book "Strategy: An Introduction to Game Theory" because it is fast in introducing the main concepts and is accessible enough for students to read by themselves. The complete teaching materials for this course are available below.

Free teaching materials

Undergraduate course "Introduction to Game Theory", complete teaching materials (PDF and source, GPL license)	ZIP (2.9Mb)
Graduate course "Game Theory" (Econ 201b, UCLA, Winter 2005) taught by David K. Levine, my TA notes (PDF, freely redistributable)	ZIP (1Mb)

Links to free teaching materials by others

Game Theory (undergraduate and graduate, various licenses)	www.gametheory.net
Graduate Econometrics (GPL license)	http://pareto.uab.es/mcreel/Econometrics/

CV My complete CV is available in PDF format. An excerpt is available below. Research and Teaching have their own sections elsewhere.

PDF version

EDUCATION

Ph.D., Economics, 2008 (expected)
University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

    Thesis: Essays in Applied Game Theory
    Chair: Hugo A. Hopenhayn
    Committee: Christian Hellwig, Jean-Laurent Rosenthal, Antonio Bernardo

C.Phil., Economics, 2004
University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA

M.A., Economics, 2004
Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina

B.A., Economics, 2000
Universidad Catolica Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina

AWARDS

2006–2007 Dissertation Year Fellowship
                    Graduate Division, UCLA

2006 Certificate of Excellence in Teaching
                    Outstanding Performance as a Teaching Assistant,
                    Undergraduate Macroeconomics, UCLA

2003-2004 Honors Ph.D. pass in first and second year comprehensive exams
                    Macroeconomics, Monetary Economics, Asset Pricing

2002–2006 Fellowship for Graduate Studies at UCLA
                    Graduate Division, UCLA

2000-2002 Fellowship for Graduate Studies at Universidad Torcuato di Tella
                    Agencia Nacional de Promocion Cientifica y Tecnologica (Argentina)

2000 Honor Diploma
                    Awarded for high GPA, Universidad Catolica Argentina

REFEREE WORK

American Economic Review, Econometrica.

PUBLICATION (in Spanish)

"Possible ways out of Convertibility". (1999), (joint with G. Contaldo, F. Dabusti, F. Diez, S. Sicardi, A. Stabilito). Chapter of Temas Actuales de Politica Economica, Autores Varios, EDUCA, ISBN: 950-523-161-X.

MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILIATIONS

American Economic Association, Econometric Society, California Center for Population
Research

MISCELLANEOUS

Citizenship: Argentina, Germany. (F-1 visa)
Languages: Spanish (native), German (native), English (fluent)
Computer skills: C, Matlab/GNU Octave, Mathematica, Stata, LaTeX