We study the problem of a leveraged investor that is forced to unwind a significant fraction of its portfolio in a collection of illiquid markets. It is shown that markets may become disrupted in response to a relatively small liquidity shock. As a consequence, the probability of default can be much higher than suggested by standard risk measures. We also study the impact of successful liquidation on relative asset prices. Our analysis suggests that effective risk management of leveraged financial entities should focus on the entity's potential to generate emergency cash-flows net of third-party claims for liquidity.
Download Info
To download:
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the
proper application to
view it first. Information about this may be contained
in the File-Format links below. In case of further problems read
the IDEAS help
page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS
site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
Publisher Info
Paper provided by Banque de France in its series Documents de Travail with number
179.
Find related papers by JEL classification: G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions E58 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Central Banks and Their Policies
References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997.
" The Limits of Arbitrage,"
Journal of Finance,
American Finance Association, vol. 52(1), pages 35-55, March.
[Downloadable!] (restricted)
Other versions:
Grossman, S.J. & Miller, M.H., 1988.
"Liquidity And Market Structure,"
Papers
88, Princeton, Department of Economics - Financial Research Center.
Other versions: