Benchmarking benchmarks

dc.contributor.authorBrugler, J.
dc.contributor.authorKhomyn, M.
dc.contributor.authorPutniņs̆, T.
dc.date.issued2025
dc.description.abstractFinancial benchmarks such as LIBOR underpin the pricing of trillions of dollars of contracts around the world. We evaluate the quality of benchmark prices using a state-space model to separate information from noise. Applying the method to LIBOR benchmarks and their replacements, we find that alternative reference rates (ARRs) are less noisy in four of the five currencies. However, the USD ARR is considerably more noisy, resulting in billions of dollars of noise-related wealth transfers between contract counterparties. We show that benchmark reforms such as expanding the reference market and using a trimmed mean can reduce noise in ARRs.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityJames Brugler, Marta Khomyn, Tālis Putniņš
dc.identifier.citationJournal of Financial Economics, 2025; 168:104018-1-104018-14
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.jfineco.2025.104018
dc.identifier.issn0304-405X
dc.identifier.issn1879-2774
dc.identifier.orcidKhomyn, M. [0000-0002-4244-6663]
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2440/148032
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP200101445
dc.rights© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
dc.source.urihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2025.104018
dc.subjectBenchmark prices; Information shares; Price discovery
dc.titleBenchmarking benchmarks
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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