A model of a systemic bank run
Harald Uhlig ()
Journal of Monetary Economics, 2010, vol. 57, issue 1, 78-96
Abstract:
This paper provides a model of the view that the 2008 financial crisis is reminiscent of a bank run, focussing on six stylized key features. In particular, core financial institutions have invested their funds in asset-backed securities rather than committed to long-term projects: in distress, these can potentially be sold to a large pool of outside investors at steep discounts. I consider two different motives for outside investors and their interaction with banks trading asset-backed securities: uncertainty aversion versus adverse selection. I shall argue that the version with uncertainty averse investors is more consistent with the stylized facts than the adverse selection perspective: in the former, the crisis deepens, the larger the market share of distressed core banks, while a run becomes less likely instead as a result in the adverse selection version. Therefore, the outright purchase of troubled assets by the government at prices above current market prices may both alleviate the financial crises as well as provide tax payers with returns above those for safe securities.
Keywords: Systemic; bank; run; Bank; run; Systemic; risk; Financial; crisis; Firesale; pricing; Adverse; selection; Uncertainty; aversion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (106)
Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304-3932(09)00145-7
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
Related works:
Working Paper: A Model of a Systemic Bank Run (2009) 
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:moneco:v:57:y:2010:i:1:p:78-96
Access Statistics for this article
Journal of Monetary Economics is currently edited by R. G. King and C. I. Plosser
More articles in Journal of Monetary Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().