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Working Paper
Hot Money for a Cold Economy
What is the theoretical justification for taxing unspent money transfers in a recession? To examine this question, I study a model economy where fiat money is necessary as a medium of exchange and, incidentally, serves as a store of value. This latter property is shown to open the door to business cycles and depressions driven entirely by speculation. Unconditional money transfers do not guarantee escape from a psychologically-induced depression. I demonstrate how money transfers subject to a short expiration date do eliminate speculative equilibria. This hot money policy compares favorably ...
Report
Stressed, not frozen: the Federal Funds market in the financial crisis
We examine the importance of liquidity hoarding and counterparty risk in the U.S. overnight interbank market during the financial crisis of 2008. Our findings suggest that counterparty risk plays a larger role than does liquidity hoarding: the day after Lehman Brothers? bankruptcy, loan terms become more sensitive to borrower characteristics. In particular, poorly performing large banks see an increase in spreads of 25 basis points, but are borrowing 1 percent less, on average. Worse performing banks do not hoard liquidity. While the interbank market does not freeze entirely, it does not seem ...
Report
Liquidity, Collateral Quality, and Negative Interest Rate
We analyze how banks manage liquidity between cash and marketable securities and its impact on the refinancing of projects subject to a liquidity shock. Securities can be pledged as collateral to acquire additional cash but are an imperfect hedge because their quality is uncertain. We show that banks may hold too much or too little cash in equilibrium compared to the first-best level, depending on the dispersion of securities value. Furthermore, the equilibrium relationship between the dispersion and banks cash holding is non-monotonous. We use this framework to assess the impact of liquidity ...