Fed in Print will be down for scheduled maintenance on Tuesday, November 4th, 2025. Please contact us at fip@stls.frb.org if you have any questions.

Working Paper

Outside versus inside bonds: a Modigliani-Miller type result for liquidity constrained economies


Abstract: When agents are liquidity constrained, two options exist - sell assets or borrow. We compare the allocations arising in two economies: in one, agents can sell government bonds (outside bonds) and in the other they can borrow (issue inside bonds). All transactions are voluntary, implying no taxation or forced redemption of private debt. We show that any allocation in the economy with inside bonds can be replicated in the economy with outside bonds but that the converse is not true. However, the optimal policy in each economy makes the allocations equivalent.

https://doi.org/10.20955/wp.2009.056

Access Documents

File(s): File format is application/pdf https://doi.org/10.20955/wp.2009.056
Description: Full text

Authors

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis

Part of Series: Working Papers

Publication Date: 2009

Number: 2009-056