NERA Releases White Paper on US Financial Bailout Reverse Auction Plan
28 September 2008
New York/28 September 2008 -- A new paper on reverse auctions, the cornerstone of the financial bailout plan currently being promoted by Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and hotly debated on Capitol Hill, was published today by NERA Economic Consulting.
Buying the Bad Stuff: Implementation Considerations for the Paulson Plan offers a comprehensive overview of reverse auctions. The paper examines the complexity of valuing mortgage-backed securities, and the various options for designing the auctions under which the government will buy the bad debt.
"The way the auctions are designed will be critical in determining the incentives of bidders to compete, the degree of price discovery, and ultimately the success of the program," said NERA Senior Vice President Dr. Chantale LaCasse, one of the paper's co-authors.
Dr. LaCasse is an expert in designing, implementing, and managing auctions, and has extensive experience doing so with energy products. She has also testified as an expert witness on auction design and rules related to auction implementation.
NERA Senior Vice Presidents Dr. Marcia Kramer Mayer and Dr. Elaine Buckberg and Senior Consultant Dr. Arun Sen, members of the firm's Securities and Finance Practice, are Dr. LaCasse's coauthors.
About NERA
NERA Economic Consulting (www.nera.com) is an international firm of economists who understand how markets work. Founded in 1961 as National Economic Research Associates, our more than 45 years of experience creating strategies, studies, reports, expert testimony, and policy recommendations reflects our specialization in industrial and financial economics. Our global team of more than 600 professionals operates in over 20 offices across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.
