Illiquidity and All Its Friends

55 Pages Posted: 5 May 2010

See all articles by Jean Tirole

Jean Tirole

University of Toulouse 1 - Industrial Economic Institute (IDEI); University of Toulouse 1 - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Mathématique et Quantitative (GREMAQ); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: March 2010

Abstract

The recent crisis was characterized by massive illiquidity. This paper reviews what we know and don't know about illiquidity and all its friends: market freezes, fire sales, contagion, and ultimately insolvencies and bailouts. It first explains why liquidity cannot easily be apprehended through a single statistics, and asks whether liquidity should be regulated given that a capital adequacy requirement is already in place. The paper then analyzes market breakdowns due to either adverse selection or shortages of financial muscle, and explains why such breakdowns are endogenous to balance sheet choices and to information acquisition. It then looks at what economics can contribute to the debate on systemic risk and its containment.

Finally, the paper takes a macroeconomic perspective, discusses shortages of aggregate liquidity and analyses how market value accounting and capital adequacy should react to asset prices. It concludes with a topical form of liquidity provision, monetary bailouts and recapitalizations, and analyses optimal combinations thereof; it stresses the need for macro-prudential policies.

See also, http://ssrn.com/abstract=1699600.

Keywords: Liquidity, contagion, bailouts, regulation

JEL Classification: E44, E52, G28

Suggested Citation

Tirole, Jean, Illiquidity and All Its Friends (March 2010). BIS Working Paper No. 303, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1599484 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1599484

Jean Tirole (Contact Author)

University of Toulouse 1 - Industrial Economic Institute (IDEI) ( email )

Place Anatole France
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University of Toulouse 1 - Groupe de Recherche en Economie Mathématique et Quantitative (GREMAQ) ( email )

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Toulouse, 31000
France

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

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