IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/6779.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Asset Prices, Debt Constraints and Inefficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Reichlin, Pietro
  • Bloise, Gaetano

Abstract

In this paper, we consider economies with (possibly endogenous) solvency constraints under uncertainty. Constrained inefficiency corresponds to a feasible redistribution yielding a welfare improvement beginning from every contingency reached by the economy. A sort of Cass Criterion (Cass (1972)) completely characterizes constrained inefficiency. This criterion involves only observable prices and requires low interest rates in the long-run, exactly as in economies with overlapping generations. In addition, when quantitative limits to liabilities arise from participation constraints, a feasible welfare improvement, subject to participation, coincides with the introduced notion of constrained inefficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Reichlin, Pietro & Bloise, Gaetano, 2008. "Asset Prices, Debt Constraints and Inefficiency," CEPR Discussion Papers 6779, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6779
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cepr.org/publications/DP6779
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manuel S. Santos & Michael Woodford, 1997. "Rational Asset Pricing Bubbles," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 65(1), pages 19-58, January.
    2. Cass, David, 1972. "On capital overaccumulation in the aggregative, neoclassical model of economic growth: A complete characterization," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 4(2), pages 200-223, April.
    3. YiLi Chien & Hanno Lustig, 2010. "The Market Price of Aggregate Risk and the Wealth Distribution," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 23(4), pages 1596-1650, April.
    4. Krueger, Dirk & Uhlig, Harald, 2006. "Competitive risk sharing contracts with one-sided commitment," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(7), pages 1661-1691, October.
    5. Kiyotaki, Nobuhiro & Moore, John, 1997. "Credit Cycles," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(2), pages 211-248, April.
    6. Kocherlakota, Narayana R., 1992. "Bubbles and constraints on debt accumulation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 57(1), pages 245-256.
    7. Andrew B. Abel & N. Gregory Mankiw & Lawrence H. Summers & Richard J. Zeckhauser, 1989. "Assessing Dynamic Efficiency: Theory and Evidence," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 56(1), pages 1-19.
    8. Bulow, Jeremy & Rogoff, Kenneth, 1989. "Sovereign Debt: Is to Forgive to Forget?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 43-50, March.
    9. Chattopadhyay, Subir, 2008. "The Cass criterion, the net dividend criterion, and optimality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 139(1), pages 335-352, March.
    10. Chattopadhyay, Subir & Gottardi, Piero, 1999. "Stochastic OLG Models, Market Structure, and Optimality," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 21-67, November.
    11. Levine, David K. & Zame, William R., 1996. "Debt constraints and equilibrium in infinite horizon economies with incomplete markets," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 103-131.
    12. Bloise, Gaetano & Calciano, Filippo L., 2008. "A characterization of inefficiency in stochastic overlapping generations economies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 143(1), pages 442-468, November.
    13. S. Rao Aiyagari, 1994. "Uninsured Idiosyncratic Risk and Aggregate Saving," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(3), pages 659-684.
    14. Chris Shannon & William R. Zame, 2002. "Quadratic Concavity and Determinacy of Equilibrium," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(2), pages 631-662, March.
    15. Timothy J. Kehoe & David K. Levine, 1993. "Debt-Constrained Asset Markets," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(4), pages 865-888.
    16. Fernando Alvarez & Urban J. Jermann, 2000. "Efficiency, Equilibrium, and Asset Pricing with Risk of Default," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(4), pages 775-798, July.
    17. Rao Aiyagari, S. & Peled, Dan, 1991. "Dominant root characterization of Pareto optimality and the existence of optimal equilibria in stochastic overlapping generations models," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 69-83, June.
    18. Christian Hellwig & Guido Lorenzoni, 2009. "Bubbles and Self-Enforcing Debt," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(4), pages 1137-1164, July.
    19. Gabrielle Demange & Guy Laroque, 2000. "Social Security, Optimality, and Equilibria in a Stochastic Overlapping Generations Economy," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 2(1), pages 1-23, January.
    20. Scheinkman, Jose A & Weiss, Laurence, 1986. "Borrowing Constraints and Aggregate Economic Activity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 54(1), pages 23-45, January.
    21. Barbie Martin & Hagedorn Marcus & Kaul Ashok, 2004. "Assessing Aggregate Tests of Efficiency for Dynamic Economies," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-17, December.
    22. Woodford, Michael, 1990. "Public Debt as Private Liquidity," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 382-388, May.
    23. Jonathan Eaton & Mark Gersovitz, 1981. "Debt with Potential Repudiation: Theoretical and Empirical Analysis," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 48(2), pages 289-309.
    24. Arnold Meadow & Harold J. Vetter, 1959. "Freudian Theory and the Judaic Value System," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 5(3), pages 197-207, December.
    25. Narayana R. Kocherlakota, 1996. "Implications of Efficient Risk Sharing without Commitment," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 63(4), pages 595-609.
    26. Phelan Christopher, 1995. "Repeated Moral Hazard and One-Sided Commitment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 66(2), pages 488-506, August.
    27. Charalambos D. Aliprantis & Kim C. Border, 2006. "Infinite Dimensional Analysis," Springer Books, Springer, edition 0, number 978-3-540-29587-7, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bidian, Florin, 2016. "Robust bubbles with mild penalties for default," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 141-153.
    2. Gaetano Bloise & Pietro Reichlin & Mario Tirelli, 2009. "Indeterminacy Of Competitive Equilibrium With Risk Of Default," Levine's Working Paper Archive 814577000000000313, David K. Levine.
    3. Victor Filipe Martins da Rocha & Yiannis Vailakis, 2015. "Constrained Efficiency Without Commitment," Working Papers hal-01097121, HAL.
    4. Jürgen Eichberger & Klaus Rheinberger & Martin Summer, 2014. "Credit risk in general equilibrium," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 57(2), pages 407-435, October.
    5. Bosi, Stefano & Le Van, Cuong & Pham, Ngoc-Sang, 2017. "Asset bubbles and efficiency in a generalized two-sector model," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 37-48.
    6. Cuong Le Van & Ngoc-Sang Pham, 2016. "Intertemporal equilibrium with financial asset and physical capital," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 62(1), pages 155-199, June.
    7. Martins-da-Rocha, V. Filipe & Vailakis, Yiannis, 2015. "Constrained efficiency without commitment," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 276-286.
    8. Boucekkine, Raouf & Nishimura, Kazuo & Venditti, Alain, 2015. "Introduction to financial frictions and debt constraints," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 271-275.
    9. Stefano Bosi & Cuong Le Van & Ngoc-Sang Pham, 2014. "Intertemporal equilibrium with production: bubbles and efficiency," Documents de travail du Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne 14043, Université Panthéon-Sorbonne (Paris 1), Centre d'Economie de la Sorbonne.
    10. M. Peiris & Alexandros Vardoulakis, 2015. "Collateral and the efficiency of monetary policy," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 59(3), pages 579-603, August.
    11. Bloise, G. & Citanna, A., 2019. "Asset shortages, liquidity and speculative bubbles," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 952-990.
    12. Pietro Reichlin, 2018. "Money Creation: Tax or Public Liquidity?," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 50(5), pages 1073-1094, August.
    13. Florin Bidian & Camelia Bejan, 2015. "Martingale properties of self-enforcing debt," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 60(1), pages 35-57, September.
    14. Victor Filipe Martins da Rocha & Toan Phan & Yiannis Vailakis, 2019. "Debt Limits and Credit Bubbles in General Equilibrium," Post-Print hal-02429759, HAL.
    15. Becker, Robert A. & Mitra, Tapan, 2012. "Efficient Ramsey Equilibria," Macroeconomic Dynamics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(S1), pages 18-32, April.
    16. Gaetano Bloise & Pietro Reichlin, 2023. "Low safe interest rates: A case for dynamic inefficiency?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 633-656, December.
    17. V. Filipe Martins-Da-Rocha & Toan Phan & Yiannis Vailakis, 2022. "Pecuniary Externalities in Competitive Economies with Limited Pledgeability," Working Papers hal-03909596, HAL.
    18. Alin OPREANA & Simona VINEREAN, 2015. "Analysis of the Economic Research Context after the Outbreak of the Economic Crisis of 2007-2009," Expert Journal of Economics, Sprint Investify, vol. 3(1), pages 77-92.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christian Hellwig & Guido Lorenzoni, 2009. "Bubbles and Self-Enforcing Debt," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(4), pages 1137-1164, July.
    2. Christian Hellwig, 2003. "Bubbles and Self-enforcing Debt (October 2006, with Guido Lorenzoni)," UCLA Economics Online Papers 229, UCLA Department of Economics.
    3. Bloise, Gaetano & Polemarchakis, Herakles & Vailakis, Yiannis, 2017. "Sovereign debt and incentives to default with uninsurable risks," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 12(3), September.
    4. Miao, Jianjun, 2014. "Introduction to economic theory of bubbles," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 130-136.
    5. Bloise, Gaetano & Polemarchakis, Herakles & Vailakis, Yiannis, 2018. "Sustainable Debt," CRETA Online Discussion Paper Series 45, Centre for Research in Economic Theory and its Applications CRETA.
    6. Florin Bidian & Camelia Bejan, 2015. "Martingale properties of self-enforcing debt," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 60(1), pages 35-57, September.
    7. V. Filipe Martins-Da-Rocha & Toan Phan & Yiannis Vailakis, 2022. "Pecuniary Externalities in Competitive Economies with Limited Pledgeability," Working Papers hal-03909596, HAL.
    8. Victor Filipe Martins da Rocha & Toan Phan & Yiannis Vailakis, 2019. "Debt Limits and Credit Bubbles in General Equilibrium," Post-Print hal-02429759, HAL.
    9. Bloise, G. & Citanna, A., 2019. "Asset shortages, liquidity and speculative bubbles," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 952-990.
    10. Gaetano Bloise & Pietro Reichlin & Mario Tirelli, 2013. "Fragility of Competitive Equilibrium with Risk of Default," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 16(2), pages 271-295, April.
    11. Gaetano Bloise, 2013. "The structure of competitive equilibrium with unsecured debt," Departmental Working Papers of Economics - University 'Roma Tre' 0187, Department of Economics - University Roma Tre.
    12. Cuong Le Van & Ngoc-Sang Pham, 2016. "Intertemporal equilibrium with financial asset and physical capital," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 62(1), pages 155-199, June.
    13. Krueger, Dirk & Uhlig, Harald, 2022. "Neoclassical Growth with Limited Commitment," CEPR Discussion Papers 17757, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    14. Dirk Krueger & Harald Uhlig, 2024. "Neoclassical Growth with Limited Commitment," PIER Working Paper Archive 24-021, Penn Institute for Economic Research, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    15. Gaetano Bloise & Pietro Reichlin, 2023. "Low safe interest rates: A case for dynamic inefficiency?," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 633-656, December.
    16. Rampini, Adriano A. & Viswanathan, S., 2018. "Financing Insurance," CEPR Discussion Papers 12855, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    17. Diego J. Perez, 2015. "Sovereign Debt, Domestic Banks and the Provision of Public Liquidity," Discussion Papers 15-016, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    18. Bidian, Florin, 2016. "Robust bubbles with mild penalties for default," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 141-153.
    19. Miao, Jianjun & Zhang, Yuzhe, 2015. "A duality approach to continuous-time contracting problems with limited commitment," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 159(PB), pages 929-988.
    20. Azariadis, Costas & Kaas, Leo, 2013. "Endogenous credit limits with small default costs," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 148(2), pages 806-824.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Constrained inefficiency; Default; Private debt; Solvency constraints; Asset prices; Cass criterion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D50 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - General
    • D52 - Microeconomics - - General Equilibrium and Disequilibrium - - - Incomplete Markets
    • D61 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Allocative Efficiency; Cost-Benefit Analysis
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • G13 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Contingent Pricing; Futures Pricing

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6779. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cepr.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.