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Optimal Bailouts in Diversified Financial Networks

Theoretical Economics 2024-06-19 v1 Social and Information Networks

Abstract

Widespread default involves substantial deadweight costs which could be countered by injecting capital into failing firms. Injections have positive spillovers that can trigger a repayment cascade. But which firms should a regulator bailout so as to minimize the total injection of capital while ensuring solvency of all firms? While the problem is, in general, NP-hard, for a wide range of networks that arise from a stochastic block model, we show that the optimal bailout can be implemented by a simple policy that targets firms based on their characteristics and position in the network. Specific examples of the setting include core-periphery networks.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2406.12818,
  title  = {Optimal Bailouts in Diversified Financial Networks},
  author = {Krishna Dasaratha and Santosh Venkatesh and Rakesh Vohra},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.12818},
  year   = {2024}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-28T17:10:42.469Z