2010-09-16

Risk and Liquidity

Hyun Song Shin (Hughes-Rogers Professor of Economics at Princeton University)'s awaited book on financial crises came out recently, titled "Risk and Liquidity":


The book is based on his 2008 Clarendon Lectures (in Finance). The table of contents and sample of a few sections are available from his website (link). Let me quote the comments by Roger Myerson and Franklin Allen, which seem to illuminate the feature and importance of  this outstanding book very well.
In the Great Recession, the world has looked for leading economists to offer a new and better understanding of macroeconomic instability, as Keynes did in the Great Depression. In this book, Hyun Song Shin delivers what was needed. Step by step, he develops as new comprehensive understanding of how macroeconomic booms and busts can be derived from microeconomic forces in the banking system. This book should be recognized as a major contribution to macroeconomic theory.
Roger Myerson, Nobel Laureate in Economics 2007, Chicago University

Hyun Song Shin is one of the leading scholars on financial stability in the world. His experience in this field is not confined to his academic work. He has also advised the President of Korea, the Bank of England and many other institutions on these issues. The recent crisis has underlined how important it is to understand the boom-bust cycle. During the boom asset prices rise, this allows financial institutions to borrow and expand their balance sheets and drive prices up more. Similarly, in the bust part of the cycle they reduce their debt, their balance sheets shrink, they sell assets and prices fall more. Hyun Song Shin done the foundational theoretical and empirical research on this leveraging and deleveraging amplification mechanism. This book provides a very accessible summary of this work. It is essential reading for all academics and practitioners interested in financial crises.
Franklin Allen, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

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