PUBLIC DEBT UNDER LIMITED PRIVATE CREDIT

There is a conventional wisdom in economics that public debt can serve as a substitute for private credit if private borrowing is limited. The purpose of this paper is to show that, while a government could in principle use such a policy to fully relax borrowing limits, this is not generally optimal. In our economy, agents invest in a short‐term asset, a long‐term asset, and government bonds. Agents are subject to idiosyncratic liquidity shocks prior to the maturity of the long‐term asset. We show that a high public debt policy fully relaxes private borrowing limits and is suboptimal. This is because agents expecting such a policy respond by investing less than is socially optimal in the short asset which can protect them in the event of a liquidity shock. The optimal policy is more constrained and it induces a wedge between the technological rate of return on the long asset and the rate of return on bonds. In such a regime, agents subject to liquidity shocks are also borrowing constrained, and this expectation of being borrowing constrained induces them to invest the optimal level in the short asset.     

A CONCEPTUAL DESCRIPTION OF A FINANCIAL PLANNING MODEL FOR COMMERCIAL BANKS

This paper describes a conceptually sound and powerful model to aid bank managers in short and long range decision making for the management of the financial performance of the bank. The planning model is a key element in an integrated computer-based planning system which includes a forecast of economic, monetary, and loan market conditions, an analysis of internal relationships, and a system of reports which provide management with access to historical data and planning summaries. The planning model at the heart of the system, contains an imbedded linear programming algorithm to optimize “balance sheet management” decisions within liquidity and capital adequacy constraints. The model recognizes the interaction between assets and liabilities, it recognizes the time value of money, and it accommodates the difference between the net marginal yield for decision making, and the gross average yield used for determining revenue. Finally, the model recognizes the crucial role of liquidity with an important treatment of gross cash flows from normal asset turnover as a major source of liquidity, and the liquidity aspects of liabilities, as well as the more traditional concept of asset marketability.     

Endogenous Liquidity and Defaultable Bonds

This paper studies the interaction between default and liquidity for corporate bonds that are traded in an over‐the‐counter secondary market with search frictions. Bargaining with dealers determines a bond's endogenous liquidity, which depends on both the firm fundamental and the time‐to‐maturity of the bond. Corporate default decisions interact with the endogenous secondary market liquidity via the rollover channel. A default‐liquidity loop arises: Assuming a relative illiquid secondary bond market in default, earlier endogenous default worsens a bond's secondary market liquidity, which amplifies equity holders' rollover losses, which in turn leads to earlier endogenous default. Besides characterizing in closed form the full interdependence between liquidity and default for credit spreads, our calibrated model can jointly match empirically observed credit spreads and liquidity measures of bonds across different rating classes.     

The 2007 Subprime Market Crisis Through the Lens of European Central Bank Auctions for Short‐Term Funds

We study European banks' demand for short‐term funds (liquidity) during the summer 2007 subprime market crisis. We use bidding data from the European Central Bank's auctions for one‐week loans, their main channel of monetary policy implementation. Our analysis provides a high‐frequency, disaggregated perspective on the 2007 crisis, which was previously studied through comparisons of collateralized and uncollateralized interbank money market rates which do not capture the heterogeneous impact of the crisis on individual banks. Through a model of bidding, we show that banks' bids reflect their cost of obtaining short‐term funds elsewhere (e.g., in the interbank market) as well as a strategic response to other bidders. The strategic response is empirically important: while a naïve interpretation of the raw bidding data may suggest that virtually all banks suffered an increase in the cost of short‐term funding, we find that, for about one third of the banks, the change in bidding behavior was simply a strategic response. We also find considerable heterogeneity in the short‐term funding costs among banks: for over one third of the bidders, funding costs increased by more than 20 basis points, and funding costs vary widely with respect to the country‐of‐origin. The funding costs we estimate using bidding data are also predictive of market‐ and accounting‐based measures of bank performance, reinforcing the usefulness of “revealed preference” information contained in bids.     

Opportunism in Capital Budget Recommendations: The Effects of Past Performance and Its Attributions*

This study uses an experiment to examine the separate and combined effects of managers' loss aversion and their causal attributions about their divisions' performance on tendencies to make goal‐incongruent capital budget recommendations. We find that managers' recommendations are biased by their loss aversion. In particular, managers of high‐performing divisions are more likely than managers of low‐performing divisions to propose investments that maximize their division's short‐term profits at the expense of the firm's long‐term value. We also find that managers' recommendations are biased by their causal attributions. In particular, managers are more likely to propose investments that maximize their division's short‐term profits at the expense of the firm's long‐term value when they attribute their division's performance to external causes (e.g., task difficulty or luck) rather than to internal causes (e.g., managerial ability or effort). Further, the effects of causal attributions are greater for managers of high‐performing divisions than for managers of low‐performing divisions. The study's findings are important because loss aversion and causal attributions are often manifested in firms. Thus, they may bias managers' decisions, which in turn may be detrimental to the firms' long‐term value.     

Education,Matching, and the Allocative Value of Romance

Societies are characterized by customs governing the allocation of non‐market goods such as marital partnerships. We explore how such customs affect the educational investment decisions of young singles and the subsequent joint labor supply decisions of partnered couples. We consider two separate matching paradigms—one where partners marry for money and the other where partners marry for romantic reasons orthogonal to productivity or debt. Whereas marrying for money generates greater investment efficiency, romantic matching, by increasing the number of educated and talented women who participate in the labour market, increases aggregate productivity. (JEL: I21, J12, J16, J41)     

Inefficient Investment Waves

We show that firms' individually optimal liquidity management results in socially inefficient boom‐and‐bust patterns. Financially constrained firms decide on the level of their liquid resources facing cash‐flow shocks and time‐varying investment opportunities. Firms' liquidity management decisions generate simultaneous waves in aggregate cash holdings and investment, even if technology remains constant. These investment waves are not constrained efficient in general, because the social and private value of liquidity differs. The resulting pecuniary externality affects incentives differentially depending on the state of the economy, and often overinvestment occurs during booms and underinvestment occurs during recessions. In general, policies intended to mitigate underinvestment raise prices during recessions, making overinvestment during booms worse. However, a well‐designed price‐support policy will increase welfare in both booms and recessions.     

Money and Credit Redux

We analyze money and credit as competing payment instruments in decentralized exchange. In natural environments, we show the economy does not need both: if credit is easy, money is irrelevant; if credit is tight, money is essential, but credit becomes irrelevant. Changes in credit conditions are neutral because real balances respond endogenously to keep total liquidity constant. This is true for both exogenous and endogenous debt limits and policy limits, secured and unsecured lending, and general pricing mechanisms. While we show how to overturn some of these results, the benchmark model suggests credit might matter less than people think.     

Electronic Intermediary Functional Roles and Profitability

Internet start‐ups and traditional firms expanding existing offerings and services through the Net have seen both success and failure. For such business model pursuits, electronic intermediation possesses the ability to cultivate new marketplaces and restructure supply chains. The economic literature identifies four distinct intermediary roles, specifically: (i) information and (ii) logistics management, (iii) transaction securitization, as well as (iv) insurance/market‐making and liquidity management. Research notes that electronic intermediaries, while possessing clear advantages in their ability to manage information, face greater challenges in allowing parties to benefit from the facilitation of more complex coordination activities, namely transaction securitization in addition to insurance/market‐making and liquidity management. In an effort to better understand pursuit of functional intermediary roles, our analysis of data collected on 182 electronic intermediaries explores relationships between intermediation roles and profitability. Business models relying solely upon the provision of information management are likely to realize lower levels of profitability. Alternately, the intermediary roles of logistics management as well as insurance/market‐making and liquidity management realize higher levels of profitability. Moreover, when comparing commodity‐ and service‐based intermediaries, the provision of logistics management on the part of commodity‐based firms sees higher levels of profitability, with insurance and liquidity provisions associated with greater profitability for both commodity‐ and service‐based firms. Finally, when contrasting traditional firms expanding operations in digital markets with Internet pure‐plays, we find transaction securitization functions increase the likelihood of realizing greater profitability for non‐Internet pure‐plays.     

流动性约束与消费行为关系的实证研究

流动性约束是指资本市场的资金流动具有单向性,流动性约束的存在可以提高储蓄水 平,降低当期累积消费. 通过三阶段生命期界的最优消费模型,证明了流动性约束的定量存在, 并通过实证检验发现,我国消费总量中受流动性约束影响的比例达到83. 46 %. 因此,增强信 贷市场的流动性,对于扩张有效需求将起重要作用.     

Limited Rationality and Strategic Interaction: The Impact of the Strategic Environment on Nominal Inertia

Much evidence suggests that people are heterogeneous with regard to their abilities to make rational, forward‐looking decisions. This raises the question as to when the rational types are decisive for aggregate outcomes and when the boundedly rational types shape aggregate results. We examine this question in the context of a long‐standing and important economic problem: the adjustment of nominal prices after an anticipated monetary shock. Our experiments suggest that two types of bounded rationality—money illusion and anchoring—are important behavioral forces behind nominal inertia. However, depending on the strategic environment, bounded rationality has vastly different effects on aggregate price adjustment. If agents' actions are strategic substitutes, adjustment to the new equilibrium is extremely quick, whereas under strategic complementarity, adjustment is both very slow and associated with relatively large real effects. This adjustment difference is driven by price expectations, which are very flexible and forward‐looking under substitutability but adaptive and sticky under complementarity. Moreover, subjects' expectations are also considerably more rational under substitutability.     

通货紧缩、资产膨胀与货币政策——兼论当前中国的货币总量和货币结构问题

本文首先描述了中国通货紧缩与资产膨胀并存的金融怪现象,这是与传统理论相悖的;然后通过引入以资本市场为代表的虚拟经济部门将传统的货币数量论拓展为三部门的广义货币数量论,在新的模型框架下侧重从货币政策角度分析了通货紧缩与资产膨胀并存的生成机理。我们的分析表明:“中国悖论”是货币总量理论在偏松情况下货币结构严重失衡的产物,是货币结构失衡大于货币总量失衡的结果。优化货币结构是解决“中国悖论”的关键所在,中国货币政策应更多关注货币结构而不仅仅是货币总量问题。     

中国企业部门信用风险溢价期限结构与宏观经济因子

近年来，中国企业部门债务风险不断暴露，其是否会引发系统性信用危机正成为焦点。本文着眼于中国企业部门信用风险累积与暴露背后的宏观经济现实，在简约模型中引入结构向量自回归模型（SVAR），将经济冲击区分为总供给冲击、总需求冲击和货币政策冲击，以此研究各宏观经济因子对中国企业部门信用风险溢价期限结构的影响特征，从而揭示中国企业部门信用风险定价的宏观经济机理。本文发现，正向的总供给冲击和货币政策冲击有助于降低中国企业部门信用风险溢价，但正向的总需求冲击则会推高中国企业部门信用风险溢价，自2011年以来持续处于高位水平的信用风险溢价的主要根源正是4万亿经济刺激计划所带来的扩张性总需求，因此欲从根本上降低中国企业部门信用风险水平，应紧缩社会总需求，并通过制度改革和结构调整，改善社会总供给。     

The Effect of Forest Management Strategy on Carbon Storage and Revenue in Western Washington: A Probabilistic Simulation of Tradeoffs

The objectives of this study are to understand tradeoffs between forest carbon and timber values, and evaluate the impact of uncertainty in improved forest management (IFM) carbon offset projects to improve forest management decisions. The study uses probabilistic simulation of uncertainty in financial risk for three management scenarios (clearcutting in 45‐ and 65‐year rotations and no harvest) under three carbon price schemes (historic voluntary market prices, cap and trade, and carbon prices set to equal net present value (NPV) from timber‐oriented management). Uncertainty is modeled for value and amount of carbon credits and wood products, the accuracy of forest growth model forecasts, and four other variables relevant to American Carbon Registry methodology. Calculations use forest inventory data from a 1,740 ha forest in western Washington State, using the Forest Vegetation Simulator (FVS) growth model. Sensitivity analysis shows that FVS model uncertainty contributes more than 70% to overall NPV variance, followed in importance by variability in inventory sample (3–14%), and short‐term prices for timber products (8%), while variability in carbon credit price has little influence (1.1%). At regional average land‐holding costs, a no‐harvest management scenario would become revenue‐positive at a carbon credit break‐point price of $14.17/Mg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e). IFM carbon projects are associated with a greater chance of both large payouts and large losses to landowners. These results inform policymakers and forest owners of the carbon credit price necessary for IFM approaches to equal or better the business‐as‐usual strategy, while highlighting the magnitude of financial risk and reward through probabilistic simulation.     

中国股市总流动性与资产定价关系实证研究

我们建立了一个包含市场风险和两种流动性风险的三因素资产定价模型,研究中国股市总的市场流动性风险是否在资产定价中得到了反映,其中流动性风险包括用协方差度量的市场收益对总流动性的敏感性风险和用方差度量的总流动性的波动性风险。研究结果表明,中国股市不仅存在显著的市场风险溢价,而且存在显著的流动性风险溢价,而流动性风险中市场收益对总流动性的敏感性风险对资产定价的影响更为显著。     

Comment on “Commitment vs. Flexibility”

This comment corrects two results in the 2006 Econometrica paper by Amador, Werning, and Angeletos (AWA), that features a model in which individuals face a trade‐off between flexibility and commitment. First, in contrast to Proposition 1 in AWA, we show that money‐burning can be part of the ex ante optimal contract when there are two states. Second, in contrast to Proposition 2 in AWA, we show that money‐burning can be imposed at the top (in the highest liquidity shock state), even when there is a continuum of states. We provide corrected versions of the above results.     

违约风险、银行信贷筛选与货币政策非对称效应

本文构建一个包含企业违约风险与银行信贷筛选的动态随机一般均衡模型,研究银行信贷筛选对货币政策宏观经济效应产生的影响。在参数校准的基础上,分析了货币政策冲击的长期效应与短期效应。研究结果显示：(1)无论是基于长期还是短期效应的角度,银行信贷筛选均显著抑制了扩张性货币政策对宏观经济产生的积极影响;(2)基于货币政策冲击的短期效应可以发现,银行信贷筛选降低了扩张性货币政策的实际效应,并且放大了货币政策对通胀的影响;(3)通过比较扩张性与紧缩性货币政策的脉冲响应可以发现,银行信贷筛选导致货币政策的宏观经济效应存在非对称性特征。福利分析的结果表明,相比无银行信贷筛选的情形而言,银行信贷筛选导致了整体社会福利的恶化。     

Skill Management in Large‐Scale Service Marketplaces

Large‐scale, web‐based service marketplaces have recently emerged as a new resource for customers who need quick resolutions for their short‐term problems. Due to the temporary nature of the relations between customers and service providers (agents) in these marketplaces, customers may not have an opportunity to assess the ability of an agent before their service completion. On the other hand, the moderating firm has a more sustained relationship with agents, and thus it can provide customers with more information about the abilities of agents through skill screening mechanisms. In this study, we consider a marketplace where the moderating firm can run two skills tests on agents to assess if their skills are above certain thresholds. Our main objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of skill screening as a revenue maximization tool. We, specifically, analyze how much benefit the firm obtains after each additional skill test. We find that skill screening leads to negligible revenue improvements in marketplaces where agent skills are highly compatible and the average service times are similar for all customers. As the compatibility of agent skills weakens or the customers start to vary in their processing time needs, we show that the firm starts to experience sizable improvements in revenue from skill screening. Apparently, the firm can reap the most of these substantial benefits when it runs only one test. For instance, in marketplaces where agents posses uncorrelated skills, the second skill test only brings an additional 2% improvement in revenue. Accounting for possible skill screening costs, we then show the optimality of offering only one test when the compatibility between agent skills is sufficiently low. The results of this study also have important implications in terms of the right level of intervention in the marketplaces we study.     

An investigation of company product decision making

This article is concerned with an investigation of the approaches taken by companies in making product decisions. The first part is concerned with a review of the range of product decisions as presented within the literature. This range is established within the context of corporate planning, with a major split between long term strategic planning product decisions, and short term operational planning product decisions. The second part of the article is concerned with the results of a survey that was designed to investigate the criteria that companies use within their product decision making. These criteria included those applicable to strategic planning, but also incorporated a range of criteria applicable to short term operational planning, as proposed in a recent article by Greenley [8]. The overall conclusion to the survey results was that a common and universal approach to product decision making cannot be identified within this sample of companies. A low level of agreement as to the relative degree of importance of the criteria was evident, and, little attention to differentiating product decisions with time was also evident. The results also challenge the importance given by the literature to the concepts of product life cycle, portfolio analysis and synergy. Finally, the author suggests two implications as a consequence of these results.