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Safe assets: a review

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  • Golec, Pascal
  • Perotti, Enrico

Abstract

We survey the emerging literature on safe assets. The recent evidence on a time-varying safety premium suggests a demand for safety quite distinct from liquidity and classic money demand, offering insight on a strong segmentation between safe savings and speculative investment markets. A related theoretical literature studies the private creation of (quasi) safe assets by intermediaries, shedding new light on bank intermediation and financial stability. Novel concepts such as maturity races, information sensitivity, risk-intolerant debt and induced runs reinforce the liquidity risk externality associated with banking, and have significant implications for research on credit cycles as well as for prudential policy. JEL Classification: E41, E44, E52, G21

Suggested Citation

  • Golec, Pascal & Perotti, Enrico, 2017. "Safe assets: a review," Working Paper Series 2035, European Central Bank.
    • Handle: RePEc:ecb:ecbwps:20172035
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    Cited by:

    1. Stijn Claessens & M Ayhan Kose, 2018. "Frontiers of macrofinancial linkages," BIS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 95.
    2. Thiago Revil T. Ferreira & Samer Shousha, 2020. "Scarcity of Safe Assets and Global Neutral Interest Rates," International Finance Discussion Papers 1293, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    3. Feng Dong & Yi Wen, 2017. "Flight to What? — Dissecting Liquidity Shortages in the Financial Crisis," Working Papers 2017-25, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    4. François Le Grand & Xavier Ragot, 2017. "Optimal Fiscal Policy with Heterogeneous Agents and Aggregate Shocks," Sciences Po Economics Discussion Papers 2017-03, Sciences Po Departement of Economics.
    5. Mario Di Filippo & Angelo Ranaldo & Jan Wrampelmeyer, 2022. "Unsecured and Secured Funding," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 54(2-3), pages 651-662, March.
    6. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/6bl2553ksc9vlq1fltjs9h1cht is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Giudice, Gabriele & de Manuel Aramendía, Mirzha & Kontolemis, Zenon & Monteiro, Daniel P., 2019. "A European safe asset to complement national government bonds," MPRA Paper 95748, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Dick Bryan & David Harvie & Mike Rafferty & Bruno Tinel, 2020. "Ch 13: The Financialized State," Post-Print halshs-02955815, HAL.
    9. Matteo Salto & Stefano Zedda & Stefan Zeugner, 2020. "Using Supra-Covered Bonds to Enhance Liquidity in the Euro Area: Assessment of Advantages for the Banking Sector," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-10, November.
    10. Thiago Revil T. Ferreira & Samer Shousha, 2021. "Supply of Sovereign Safe Assets and Global Interest Rates," International Finance Discussion Papers 1315, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    11. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/6bl2553ksc9vlq1fltjs9h1cht is not listed on IDEAS
    12. H. Evren Damar & Reint Gropp & Adi Mordel, 2019. "Flight from Safety: How a Change to the Deposit Insurance Limit Affects Households’ Portfolio Allocation," Staff Working Papers 19-29, Bank of Canada.
    13. François Le Grand & Xavier Ragot, 2017. "Optimal Fiscal Policy with Heterogeneous Agents and Aggregate Shocks," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03458683, HAL.
    14. Feld, Lars P. & Schmidt, Christoph M. & Schnabel, Isabel & Truger, Achim & Wieland, Volker, 2019. "Den Strukturwandel meistern. Jahresgutachten 2019/20," Annual Economic Reports / Jahresgutachten, German Council of Economic Experts / Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung, volume 127, number 201920.
    15. Dick Bryan & David Harvie & Mike Rafferty & Bruno Tinel, 2020. "Ch 13: The Financialized State," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-02955815, HAL.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    demand for safety; liquidity premium; riskless debt; safe assets; safety premium;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E41 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Demand for Money
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

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