drying up of liquidity. Financial firms raise short-term debt in order to finance asset purchases. When asset fundamentals … worsen, debt induces firms to risk-shift; this limits their funding liquidity and their ability to roll over debt. Firms may … de-lever by selling assets to better-capitalized firms. Thus the market liquidity of assets depends on the severity of …

importance of borrowing constraints in Japan. We find (1) that 8 to 15 percent of young married Japanese households are borrowing … does not apply in Japan and that the presence of borrowing constraints is not the main reason why it does not apply …