The pricing of different dimensions of liquidity : evidence from government guaranteed bank bonds

Seminal market microstructure literature identifies at least three important dimensions of liquidity: trading costs, depth, and resiliency. We investigate the relevance of each of these three dimensions of liquidity - separately and in conjunction - for the pricing of corporate bonds. Unlike previous studies, our sample allows us to cleanly separate the default and non-default components of yield spreads. We find that each of the above three dimensions of liquidity impact non-default spreads, with trading costs and resiliency being more important than depth. We also find that both bond-specific and market-wide dimensions of liquidity are priced in non-default spreads. Finally, we find that, even though these three dimensions of liquidity account for virtually the entire non-default spread, there does exist in some periods a small residual non-default yield spread that is consistent with an additional "flight-to-extreme-liquidity" premium reflecting investor preference for assets that enable quickest possible disengagement from the market when necessary.