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

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Listed author(s):
  • 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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Article provided by Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis in its journal Quarterly Review.

Volume (Year): (1993)
Issue (Month): Win ()
Pages: 17-31

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Handle: RePEc:fip:fedmqr:y:1993:i:win:p:17-31:n:v.17no.1
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Keywords: Interest rates;

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  1. Mehra, Rajnish & Prescott, Edward C., 1985. "The equity premium: A puzzle," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 145-161, March.
  2. Phelan, C. & Townsend, R.M., 1990. "Computing Multiperiod, Information-Constrained Optima," University of Chicago - Economics Research Center 90-13, Chicago - Economics Research Center.
  3. Christopher Phelan & Robert M. Townsend, 1991. "Computing Multi-Period, Information-Constrained Optima," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 58(5), pages 853-881.
  4. Aiyagari, S. Rao & Gertler, Mark, 1991. "Asset returns with transactions costs and uninsured individual risk," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 311-331, June.
  5. Deaton, Angus, 1991. "Saving and Liquidity Constraints," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(5), pages 1221-1248, September.
  6. Barsky, Robert B & Mankiw, N Gregory & Zeldes, Stephen P, 1986. "Ricardian Consumers with Keynesian Propensities," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(4), pages 676-691, September.
  7. Mankiw, N. Gregory & Zeldes, Stephen P., 1991. "The consumption of stockholders and nonstockholders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 97-112, March.
  8. Andrew Atkeson & Robert E. Lucas, 1992. "On Efficient Distribution With Private Information," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 59(3), pages 427-453.
  9. Hansen, Lars Peter & Jagannathan, Ravi, 1991. "Implications of Security Market Data for Models of Dynamic Economies," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 99(2), pages 225-262, April.
  10. S. Rao Aiyagari, 1994. "Uninsured Idiosyncratic Risk and Aggregate Saving," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 109(3), pages 659-684.
  11. Labadie, Pamela, 1989. "Stochastic inflation and the equity premium," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 277-298, September.
  12. Rietz, Thomas A., 1988. "The equity risk premium a solution," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 117-131, July.
  13. Christopher D. Carroll, 1991. "Buffer stock saving and the permanent income hypothesis," Working Paper Series / Economic Activity Section 114, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
  14. Constantinides, George M, 1990. "Habit Formation: A Resolution of the Equity Premium Puzzle," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(3), pages 519-543, June.
  15. Kessler, Denis & Wolff, Edward N, 1991. "A Comparative Analysis of Household Wealth Patterns in France and the United States," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 37(3), pages 249-266, September.
  16. Lucas, Robert E, Jr, 1978. "Asset Prices in an Exchange Economy," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(6), pages 1429-1445, November.
  17. Aiyagari, S. Rao & Gertler, Mark, 1991. "Asset returns with transactions costs and uninsured individual risk," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 311-331, June.
  18. James M. Nason, 1988. "The equity premium and time-varying risk behavior," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 11, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
  19. Mehra, Rajnish & Prescott, Edward C., 1988. "The equity risk premium: A solution?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 133-136, July.
  20. Townsend, Robert M., 1979. "Optimal contracts and competitive markets with costly state verification," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 265-293, October.
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Cited by:

  1. B. Ravikumar & Enchuan Shao, 2005. "Search Frictions and Asset Price Volatility," 2005 Meeting Papers 227, Society for Economic Dynamics.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Andrés Felipe Arias, 2001. "Banking Productivity And Economic Fluctuations: Colombia 1998-2000," BORRADORES DE ECONOMIA 002050, BANCO DE LA REPÚBLICA.
  5. Cristina Arellano & Enrique G. Mendoza, 2002. "Credit Frictions and "Sudden Stop" in Small Open Economies: An Equilibrium Business Cycle Framework for Emerging Markets Crises," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 6499, Inter-American Development Bank.
  6. 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.
  7. Mendoza, Enrique G., 2000. "On the Benefits of Dollarization when Stabilization Policy Is Not Credible and Financial Markets are Imperfect," Working Papers 00-01, Duke University, Department of Economics.
  8. Teresa Garcia-Milà & Albert Marcet & Eva Ventura, 2010. "Supply Side Interventions and Redistribution," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 120(543), pages 105-130, 03.
  9. 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.
  10. Martins-da-Rocha, Victor Filipe & Vailakis, Yiannis, 2008. "Endogenous Transaction Costs," FGV/EPGE Economics Working Papers (Ensaios Economicos da EPGE) 680, FGV/EPGE - Escola Brasileira de Economia e Finanças, Getulio Vargas Foundation (Brazil).
  11. 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.
  12. Andrés F. Arias, 2001. "Banking Productivity and Economic Fluctuations: Colombia 1998-2000," Borradores de Economia 192, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
  13. 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.

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