EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Fire Sales, Foreign Entry and Bank Liquidity

Hyun Song Shin, Viral Acharya and Tanju Yorulmazer

No 6309, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: Bank liquidity is a crucial determinant of the severity of banking crises. In this paper, we consider the effect of fire sales and foreign entry on banks' ex ante choice of liquid asset holdings, and the ex post resolution of crises. In a setting with limited pledgeability of risky cash flows and differential expertise between banks and outsiders in employing banking assets, the market for assets clears only at fire-sale prices following the onset of a crisis -- and outsiders may enter the market if prices fall sufficiently low. While fire sales make it attractive for banks to hold liquid assets, foreign entry reduces this incentive. We exhibit international evidence on foreign entry following crises and on banks' ex ante liquidity choice that are consistent with the predictions of the model. Our framework allows us to address the key welfare question as to when there is too much or too little liquidity on bank balance sheets relative to the socially optimal level.

Keywords: Crises; Distress; Limited pledgeability; Liquidation cost; Systemic risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D61 E58 G21 G28 G32 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-cba and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP6309 (application/pdf)
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

Related works:
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:cpr:ceprdp:6309

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP6309

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-23
Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6309