Skip to main content
alt

Please enter a keyword and click the arrow to search the site

Or explore one of the areas below

Paradox of financial fire sales and the role of arbitrage capital

Subject

Finance

Publishing details

Working Paper

Authors / Editors

Dow J;Jungsuk H

Biographies

James Dow

Publication Year

2016

Abstract

How can fire sales for financial assets happen when the economy contains well capitalized, but non-specialist investors? Our explanation combines rational expectations equilibrium and "lemons" models. When specialist (informed) market participants are liquidity-constrained, prices become less informative. This creates an adverse selection problem, decreasing the supply of high-quality assets, and lowering valuations by non-specialist (uninformed) investors, who become unwilling to supply capital to support the price. In normal times, arbitrage capital can "multiply" itself by making uninformed capital function as informed capital, but in a crisis this stabilizing mechanism fails.

Keywords

Fire sales; Adverse selection; Market freeze; Illiquidity; Informed trading; Multiplier effect

Series

Working Paper

Available on ECCH

No

View document


Select up to 4 programmes to compare

Select one more to compare
×
subscribe_image_desktop 5949B9BFE33243D782D1C7A17E3345D0

Sign up to receive our latest news and business thinking direct to your inbox

×

Sign up to receive our latest course information and business thinking

Leave your details above if you would like to receive emails containing the latest thought leadership, invitations to events and news about courses that could enhance your career. If you would prefer not to receive our emails, you can still access the case study by clicking the button below. You can opt-out of receiving our emails at any time by visiting: https://london.edu/my-profile-preferences or by unsubscribing through the link provided in our emails. View our Privacy Policy for more information on your rights.