Week 7

Microeconomics of Banking

Why do banks exist? Asymmetric information, liquidity transformation, and the Diamond–Dybvig model — the economics beneath every balance sheet.

What we cover

  • Hackathon debrief — what your projects taught us
  • The final project: what we expect
  • Banks: what and why? The economic functions of intermediaries
  • Asymmetric information: screening, monitoring, and why lending is hard
  • Liquidity transformation — and why it makes banks fragile (Diamond–Dybvig)

Put it to work

This week’s lab, PC Lab 6, makes you the loan officer: predicting firms’ credit scores with machine learning.

Stuck, or curious about something here? Ask on the course forum →