Treasury Safety, Liquidity, and Money Premium Dynamics: Evidence from Recent Debt Limit Impasses

David B. Cashin, Erin E. Syron Ferris and Elizabeth Klee
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David B. Cashin: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/david-b-cashin.htm
Erin E. Syron Ferris: https://www.federalreserve.gov/econres/erin-e-syron-ferris.htm

No 2020-008, Finance and Economics Discussion Series from Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.)

Abstract: Treasury securities normally possess unparalleled safety and liquidity and, consequently, carry a money premium. We use recent debt limit impasses, which temporarily increased the riskiness of Treasuries, to investigate the relationship between the money premium, safety, and liquidity. Our results shed light on Treasury market dynamics specifically, and debt more generally. We first establish that a decline in the perceived safety of Treasuries erodes the money premium at all times. Meanwhile, changes in liquidity only affected the money premium during the impasses. Next, we show that Treasury safety and liquidity dynamics are generally consistent with the theory of the information sensitivity of debt.

Keywords: Treasury securities; Money premium; Default risk; Liquidity; Information sensitivity of debt (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E43 E63 G12 G14 G18 H63 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 48 p.
Date: 2020-01-31
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fip:fedgfe:2020-08

DOI: 10.17016/FEDS.2020.008

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