Abstract
A well-functioning economy is essential for financial markets. The leaders and bureaucrats of the critical institutions in an economy may not be able to avoid financial risks due to coordination problems under incomplete information, even when they are competent and know what to do. This study considers the coordination problem under incomplete information of economic agents with partitional information structures. In a simple theoretical model, we show that a financial risk that everybody knows may not be prevented without common knowledge, even in an ideal scenario where the leaders and bureaucrats who run the critical institutions of an economy know what to do to avoid this risk. We discuss whether the authorities should publicly disclose financial risks that are known to everyone. We conclude that an institution that coordinates the information among the key institutions of an economy may help mitigate the financial risks by turning mutual knowledge into common knowledge. Our study highlights once again the stark difference between mutual knowledge and common knowledge, pointing out that higher order knowledge is important in coordination problems.