This paper proposes a positive theory of the link between banks’ capitalisation and their liquidity-risk taking as well as the severity of fire-sale problems and liquidity crises. In the basic framework of an individual bank’s decisions, we find that banks’ incentives to hold liquidity for...

Using a unique transaction-level data, we document that only 60% of bilateral repos held by UK banks were backed by high-quality collateral. Banks intermediate repo liquidity among different counterparties and use CCPs to reallocate high-quality collaterals among themselves. Furthermore,...

Using a panel dataset of 26 advanced economies over the five decades preceding the Covid crisis, we show that inequality rises following recessions and that rapid credit growth in the run up to a downturn exacerbates that effect. A one standard deviation credit boom leads to a 40% amplification...

This paper explores whether different funding structures – including the source, instrument, currency, and counterparty location of funding – affected the extent of financial stress experienced in different countries and sectors during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. We measure...