Gold,liquidity and secured loans in a multistage economy Part I: Gold as money

This work relates to Department of the Navy Contract N00014-86-K0220 issued by the Office of Naval Research under Contract Authority NR 047-006. However, the content does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the Department of the Navy or the Government, and no official endorsement should be inferred. Revised with support of NSF contract SES-8812051.The United States Government has at least a royalty-free, non-exclusive and irrevocable license throughout the world for Government purposes to publish, translate, reproduce, deliver, perform, dispose of, and to authorize others so to do, all or any portion of this work.     

Collateral secured loans in a monetary economy

This paper presents a microfounded model of money where durable assets serve as a guarantee to repay consumption loans. We study a steady state equilibrium where money and credit coexist. In such an equilibrium, a larger investment in durable capital relaxes the borrowing constraint faced by consumers. We show that the occurrence of over-investment and the behavior of capital accumulation depend on the rate of inflation, the relative risk aversion of agents and the marginal productivity of the capital goods.     

日元贷款融入中国经济

<正> 根据最新统计,中国目前利用日元贷款已经有了相当规模。截至2002年7月底,日本政府累计向我国承诺提供日元贷款28292亿日元,安排建设186个项目,我国实际使用日元贷款约19000亿日元,约90个项目已建成投产。日本是最早向我国提供政府贷款的国家之一,贷款协议累计额占外国政府对华贷款总额的一半强,在所有24个对华提供政府贷款的国家和地区性金融机构中金额最大。我国利用日元贷款的项目涉     

International demand and liquidity shocks in a SVAR model of the Australian economy

A structural vector autoregressive model of the Australian economy that allows for international shocks from the USA, Japan as well as world commodity prices is specified and estimated for the period 1979–1999. A block exogenous structure linking the three countries is imposed. The international linkages are modelled using a factor structure to circumvent problems from estimating large scale dynamic models. The factors are estimated recursively using a Kalman filter and are found to represent aggregate demand and liquidity shocks for the USA and Japan respectively. The key empirical result is the USA shocks are the dominant source of international shocks on the Australian economy with the Japanese economy having a dampening effect on the USA shocks. The empirical results also show that Australian monetary policy responds to domestic conditions rather than international monetary policy.     

Bad loans,soft budget constraints and the political economy of financial market reform in transition economies

Financial market imperfections and especially the bad debt problem are among the most important factors impeding economic restructuring in transition economies. This paper analyses the implications of non-performing loans for the lending policy of banks and for the ensuing allocation of credit. It is shown that a lending bias exists in favour of old debtors, which not only impedes structural change but may also counteract policies intended to harden budget constraints and to promote restructuring. The paper also discusses from a political economy perspective, why despite these negative implications financial market reforms were not pursued more forcefully in most countries.     

Cash-flow news,market liquidity and liquidity risk

This article adopts Campbell's (1991) return decomposition model to decompose the unexpected stock return and unexpected excess stock return in the US stock market. The study also investigates the factors that cause the shock to stock return and excess stock return. We further examine the responses of stock market to cash-flow news, expected stock return news, expected excess stock return news and interest rate news. Last, we examine the reaction of market liquidity, liquidity risk and abnormal trading volume to cash-flow news, expected stock return news, expected excess stock return news and interest rate news. Our main findings are summarized as follows: first, cash-flow news is the main driver of stock return and excess stock return in stock market. Second, the dividend payout ratio is able to predict stock return and excess stock return. Third, under the model of stock return variance, unexpected market liquidity and unexpected liquidity risk are negatively related to expected stock return news, but not related to cash-flow news. Fourth, under the model of excess stock return variance, unexpected market liquidity and unexpected liquidity risk are negatively related to cash-flow news, expected excess stock return news, and interest rate news.     

Money,liquidity and welfare

This paper develops an analytically tractable Bewley model of money demand to shed light on some important questions in monetary theory, such as the welfare cost of inflation. It is shown that when money is a vital form of liquidity to meet uncertain consumption needs, the welfare costs of inflation can be extremely large. With log utility and parameter values that best match both the aggregate money demand curve suggested by Lucas (2000) and the variance of household consumption, agents in our model are willing to reduce consumption by 3–4% to avoid 10% annual inflation. The astonishingly large welfare costs of inflation arise because inflation increases consumption risk by eroding the buffer-stock-insurance value of money, thus hindering consumption smoothing at the household level. Such an inflation-induced increase in consumption risk at the micro level cannot be captured by representative-agent models or the Bailey triangle. Although the development of financial intermediation can mitigate the problem, with realistic credit limits the welfare loss of moderate inflation still remains several times larger than estimations based on the Bailey triangle. Our findings provide a strong justification for adopting a low inflation target by central banks, especially in developing countries where money is the major form of household financial wealth.     

Debt, liquidity and dynamics

Summary. Money, which provides liquidity, is distinct from debt. The introduction of a bank that issues money in exchange for debt and pays out its profit as dividend to shareholders modifies the model of overlapping generations. The set of equilibrium paths, their dynamic properties, as well as the scope and effectiveness of monetary policy are significantly altered: though low rates of interest are associated with superior steady state allocations, stability of the steady state may require a nominal rate of interest above a certain minimum: without production, a decrease in the nominal rate of interest may result in explosive behavior or convergence to an endogenous cycle, while in an economy with production, an increase in the nominal rate of interest may lead to indeterminacy and fluctuations.Received: 5 October 2004, Revised: 5 November 2004 JEL Classification Numbers: E30, E32, E50, E52.C. Rochon, H.M. Polemarchakis: We thank Jean-Michel Grandmont for helpful comments. Correspondence to: C. RochonThis revised version was published online in May 2005 with a corrected abstract.     

State prices,liquidity, and default

We show, in a monetary exchange economy, that asset prices in a complete markets general equilibrium are a function of the supply of liquidity by the Central Bank, through its effect on default and interest rates. Two agents trade goods and nominal assets to smooth consumption across periods and future states, in the presence of cash-in-advance financing costs that have effects on real allocations. We show that higher spot interest rates reduce trade and as a result increase state prices. Hence, states of nature with higher interest rates are also states of nature with higher risk-neutral probabilities. This result, which cannot be found in a Lucas-type representative agent model, implies that the yield curve is upward sloping in equilibrium, even when short-term interest rates are fairly stable and the variance of the (macroeconomic) stochastic discount factor is 0. The risk-premium in the term structure is, therefore, a monetary-cost risk premium.     

Balanced equilibrium in a consumption loans model

In a consumption loans model with many generations, Gale's theorem on the existence of balanced equilibrium is generalized, allowing more general preferences. The new theorem shows that there are plausible conditions under which there exists a Pareto optimal (non-optimal) balanced equilibrium whenever there exists (does not exist) a monetary golden rule equilibrium.     

Patents,profitability, liquidity and firm size

Much has been written on the need for a more rapid rate of technical progress in the British economy but there is little in the way of hard facts on the characteristics of firms that innovate and those that do not, on the factors determining a firm's rate of innovation, and on the relationship between innovation and profitability. The present paper attempts to give some quantitative content to the discussion by examining the relationship between a firm's size, its profitability, its liquidity and the number of patents obtained in three United Kingdom industries - Chemicals, an Electrical Engineering and Electronics grouping, and Machine Tools. These three industries were chosen because they are technologically based and so place heavy emphasis on research and development.

The plan of the paper is as follows. Section 1 discusses the patents data and the use of patents as an indicator of innovative activity. The size characteristics of patenting and non-patenting firms are considered in Section 2. Section 3 presents the model relating patenting to firm size, liquidity and profitability. Sections 4 to 6 report in turn the results for the Chemical industry, the Electrical Engineering and Electronics grouping, and the Machine Tools industry. Section 7 investigates whether any short-ran profitability may be found to result from inno-vative activity. Section 8 compares our results with those obtained for the United States. Section 3 is a summary of our results.     

Economic growth, liquidity, and bank runs

We construct an endogenous growth model in which bank runs occur with positive probability in equilibrium. In this setting, a bank run has a permanent effect on the levels of the capital stock and of output. In addition, the possibility of a run changes the portfolio choices of depositors and of banks, and thereby affects the long-run growth rate. These facts imply that both the occurrence of a run and the mere possibility of runs in a given period have a large impact on all future periods. A bank run in our model is triggered by sunspots, and we consider two different equilibrium selection rules. In the first, a run occurs with a fixed, exogenous probability, while in the second the probability of a run is influenced by banks’ portfolio choices. We show that when the choices of an individual bank affect the probability of a run on that bank, the economy both grows faster and experiences fewer runs.     

Expectation,excess liquidity and inflation dynamics in China

By introducing the shocks from individual activities into the Hybrid New Keynesian Phillips curve (HNKPC), we investigate the inflation dynamics and the effect of excess liquidity in China. According to the estimation result, some soundly conclusions can be drawn. Firstly, the empirical results indicate that the HNKPC is consistent with the nature of inflation dynamics in China, which posits the inflation dynamics as the combination of backward looking adaptive expectations and forward looking rational expectations. Moreover, defining excess liquidity by M2, the elasticity of inflation defined by CPI to excess liquidity is approximately unit, which reveals that the quasi-money is the main force behind inflation. The nature of inflation expectation and the effect of excess liquidity all provide the evidences that tight monetary policy is effective to curbing inflation in China.     

Capital and liquidity in a dynamic model of banking

This paper analyzes capital requirements in combination with a particular kind of cash reserves, that are invested in the risk-free asset, from now on, compensated reserves. We consider a dynamic framework of banking where competition may induce banks to gamble. In this set up, we can capture the two effects that capital regulation has on risk, the capital-at-risk effect and the franchise value effect (Hellman et al., 2000). We show that while capital alone is an inferior policy, compensated reserves, will complement capital requirements, by creating franchise value, and are therefore efficient in solving moral hazard problems.     

Expectation,volatility and liquidity in the housing market

Measuring housing price volatility is fundamental to understanding the dynamics of housing price risk. This article aims to explore whether a liquidity factor plays a role in explaining the second moment (i.e. the volatility) of housing prices. Housing price volatility is measured as the conditional variance of a Generalized Auto Regressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (GARCH) model under the Adaptive Expectations framework. The empirical evidence reveals that volatility transmits from smaller housing units to larger housing units, which indirectly supports the trade-up effect discussed in the literature. In addition, less liquid housing classes are more sensitive to unexpected liquidity shocks, and the starter housing class is extraordinarily sensitive to negative liquidity shocks. Consistent with friction search theory, pricing errors are alleviated as the trading volume increases, because the valuation price tends to be more accurate as more information is available.     

Labour markets, liquidity, and monetary policy regimes

Abstract.  We develop an equilibrium model of the monetary policy transmission mechanism that highlights information frictions in the market for money and search frictions in the labour market. The information friction increases the persistence in the response of interest rates following monetary policy regime shifts. This occurs because agents have incomplete information about the nature of the shifts and optimally update their inflation forecasts using an 'adaptive' expectations rule. The search friction transmits the interest rate movements to the labour market by affecting job creation activities; together, the two frictions imply that unemployment reacts very gradually to monetary policy shocks. JEL Classification: E4, E5     

Over-the-counter loans,adverse selection,and stigma in the interbank market

We study a model of interbank credit where physical and informational frictions limit the opportunities for intertemporal trade among banks and outside investors. Banks obtain loans in an over-the-counter market (involving search, bilateral matching, and negotiations over the terms of the loan) and hold assets of heterogeneous quality that in turn determine their ability to repay those loans. When asset quality is not observable by outside investors, information about the actions taken by a bank in the loan market may influence prices in the asset market. In particular, under some conditions, borrowing from the central bank can be regarded as a negative signal about the quality of the borrower?s assets and banks may be willing to borrow in the market at rates higher than the one offered by the central bank.     

Asymmetric group loans,non-assortative matching and adverse selection

This paper shows that an asymmetric group debt contract, where one borrower co-signs for another, but not vice versa, leads to heterogeneous matching. The analysis suggests that micro finance organizations can achieve the first best by offering asymmetric group contracts.     

Financial crises and liquidity shocks a bank-run perspective

In contrast with the financial multiplier literature, this note explores a case in which the shock triggering a financial crisis stems from the financial sector itself; it is not a shock stemming from the real sector which gets amplified by, say, agency problems. The basic intuition is provided by the bank-run literature of the Diamond and Dybvig (1983) variety. Financial development is modeled as a mechanism that endows real assets (e.g., land and capital) with liquidity. However, liquidity can be impaired by shocks that are equivalent to a bank run. Liquidity creation enhances real asset prices, while a liquidity crunch generates asset price collapse. This bubble-looking episode is not driven by standard fundamentals, although it is fully in line with rationality. In this context, devoid of other frictions like price stickiness, the note examines the effect of monetary policy in the absence of nominal rigidities. It shows that preventing price deflation is not enough to offset relative (to output) asset price meltdown, but lower policy interest rates increase relative asset prices and steady-state output. Moreover, in the neighborhood of a first-best capital allocation, an increase in the liquidity of capital may lower the welfare of the representative individual, even if the higher liquidity of capital is sustainable and, hence, not destroyed by future crash – illustrating the possibility of “excessive” financial innovation. An extension of the basic model supports the conjecture that low policy interest rates may have given further incentives to the development of “shadow banking.”