Asset Safety versus Asset Liquidity

Abstract

Many economists assume that safer assets are more liquid, and some have practically used “safe” and “liquid” as synonyms. But these terms are not synonyms, and mixing them up can lead to confusion and wrong policy recommendations. We build a multiasset model where an asset’s safety and liquidity are well defined and distinct, and we examine their relationship in general equilibrium. We show that the common belief that “safety implies liquidity” is generally justified but also identify conditions under which this relationship can be reversed. We use our model to rationalize, qualitatively and quantitatively, a prominent safety-liquidity reversal observed in the data.