The presence of information asymmetry increases the probability that a potential predator will provide liquidity rather than engaging in predatory trading during liquidation by a distressed trader. More information asymmetry is associated with lower expected losses from liquidation for the distressed trader in illiquid markets. There is a negative correlation between the degree of information a...

One important reason for the global impact of the 2007–2009 financial crisis was massive illiquidity in combination with an extreme exposure of many financial institutions to liquidity needs and market conditions. As a consequence, many financial instruments could not be traded anymore; investors ran on a variety of financial institutions, particularly in wholesale markets; financial institutio...

In this paper we study the hedging of derivatives in illiquid markets. More specifically we consider a model where the implementation of a hedging strategy affects the price of the underlying security. Following earlier work we characterize perfect hedging strategies by a nonlinear version of the Black-Scholes PDE. The core of the paper consists of a simulation study. We present numerical resul...

This chapter puts forward a manual for how to set up and solve a continuous time model that allows to analyze endogenous (1) level and risk dynamics. The latter includes (2) tail risk and crisis probability as well as (3) the Volatility Paradox. Concepts such as (4) illiquidity and liquidity mismatch, (5) endogenous leverage, (6) the Paradox of Prudence, (7) undercapitalized sectors (8) time-va...

We relax the classical price-taking assumption and study the impact of orders of arbitrary size on price when the availability of liquidity is a concern in hedging. Our paper extends the earlier literature, in that illiquidity is modeled both in terms of depth and resilience. Some of our results hold for more general stochastic processes for the underlying, for example, a generic Lévy process a...

We study how intermediation and asset prices in over-the-counter markets are affected by illiquidity associated with search and bargaining. We compute explicitly the prices at which investors trade with each other, as well as marketmakers’ bid and ask prices, in a dynamic model with strategic agents. Bid–ask spreads are lower if investors can more easily find other investors or have easier acce...

Many firms have stockholders who face severe restrictions on their ability to sell their shares and diversify the risk of their personal wealth. We study the costs of these liquidity restrictions on stockholders using a continuous-time portfolio choice framework. These restrictions have major effects on the optimal investment and consumption strategies because of the need to hedge the illiquid ...

Abstract. We review the theory and evidence on venture capital (VC) and other private equity: why professional private equity exists, what private equity managers do with their portfolio companies, what returns they earn, who earns more and why, what determines the design of contracts signed between (i) private equity managers and their portfolio companies and (ii) private equity managers and t...

We propose a unified structural credit risk model incorporating insolvency, recovery and rollover risks. The firm finances itself mainly by issuing shortand long-term debt. Short-term debt can have either a discrete or a more realistic staggered tenor structure. We show that a unique threshold strategy (i.e., a bank run barrier) exists for short-term creditors to decide when to withdraw their f...

We investigate the determinants of cash holdings and firm value of Latin American firms during the Mexican crisis of 1994-1995 and the Brazilian crisis of 1999. We find that each crisis alters the determinants of cash and firm value differently. Larger firms increase their cash holdings during the Mexican crisis, while cross-listed firms increase their holdings of cash during the Brazilian cris...