On regulating financial innovations

Abstract

This paper views the housing and credit bubble 2001–2008 as a sequence starting with a financial innovation in 2001 followed by the superimposition of other financial innovations leading to the prevalence of uncertainty in Knight's sense and ending in the last quarter of 2008 with both market failure and regulation failure. To the extent that financial innovations were an important factor in the development of the bubble, the most obvious question is whether anything can be done to prevent destabilizing innovations from entering the market. The paper outlines a policy proposal to keep pace with financial innovation and strike a balance between innovation and financial stability.

Citation

Pol, E. (2009), "On regulating financial innovations", Choi, J.J. and Papaioannou, M.G. (Ed.) Credit, Currency, or Derivatives: Instruments of Global Financial Stability Or crisis? (International Finance Review, Vol. 10), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 105-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1569-3767(2009)0000010007