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Explaining financial market facts: the importance of incomplete markets and transaction costs

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  • S. Rao Aiyagari

Abstract

In this article, I suggest that incomplete markets and transaction costs are crucial for explaining the high equity premium and the low risk-free rate. I first demonstrate the failure of the complete frictionless markets model in explaining these return puzzles and then show how introducing incomplete markets and transaction costs can lead to success. Additionally, I explain how these features lead to predictions concerning individual consumptions, wealths, portfolios, and asset market transactions that are in better agreement with the facts than the predictions of the complete frictionless markets model.

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  • S. Rao Aiyagari, 1993. "Explaining financial market facts: the importance of incomplete markets and transaction costs," Quarterly Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, vol. 17(Win), pages 17-31.
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmqr:y:1993:i:win:p:17-31:n:v.17no.1
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    2. Cristina Arellano & Enrique Mendoza, 2002. "Fricciones crediticias y 'paradas repentinas' en pequeñas economías abiertas: un marco de equilibrio del ciclo económico para crisis en mercados emergentes," Research Department Publications 4308, Inter-American Development Bank, Research Department.
    3. Enrique G. Mendoza, 2000. "On the Benefits of Dollarization when Stabilization Policy is not Credible and Financial Markets are Imperfect," NBER Working Papers 7824, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. V. Filipe MARTINS-DA-ROCHA & YIANNIS VAILAKIS, 2008. "Endogenous Transaction Costs," Discussion Papers 0810, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    5. Tomislav Globan & Petar Sorić, 2017. "Financial integration before and after the crisis: Euler equations (re)visit European Union," EFZG Working Papers Series 1702, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb.
    6. Arellano, Cristina & Mendoza, Enrique G., 2002. "Credit Frictions and "Sudden Stop" in Small Open Economies: An Equilibrium Business Cycle Framework for Emerging Markets Crises," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 1440, Inter-American Development Bank.
    7. Mendoza, Enrique G. & Smith, Katherine A., 2006. "Quantitative implications of a debt-deflation theory of Sudden Stops and asset prices," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 82-114, September.
    8. Donadelli, Michael & Prosperi, Lorenzo, 2012. "On the role of liquidity in emerging markets stock prices," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 320-348.
    9. Teresa Garcia-Milà & Albert Marcet & Eva Ventura, 2010. "Supply Side Interventions and Redistribution," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(543), pages 105-130, March.
    10. Yazdani , Mahdi & Daryani , Elmira, 2021. "Output Loss from Sudden Stop of FDI and the Role of Macroeconomic Policies," Journal of Money and Economy, Monetary and Banking Research Institute, Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran, vol. 16(2), pages 213-236, June.
    11. Sarolli, Gian Domenico, 2015. "Cleaning the gears: Counter-cyclical asset trading with financial transactions taxes," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 110-122.
    12. Andrés F. Arias, 2001. "Banking Productivity and Economic Fluctuations: Colombia 1998-2000," Borradores de Economia 192, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    13. Andrés Felipe Arias, 2001. "Banking Productivity And Economic Fluctuations: Colombia 1998-2000," Borradores de Economia 2050, Banco de la Republica.
    14. V. Martins-da-Rocha & Yiannis Vailakis, 2010. "Financial markets with endogenous transaction costs," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 45(1), pages 65-97, October.

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