J. Doyne Farmer
- 12 January 2026
- WORKING PAPER SERIES - No. 3169Details
- Abstract
- The financial crisis of 2007-2008 highlighted the risks that liquidity spirals pose to financial stability. We introduce a novel method for studying liquidity spirals and use this method to identify spirals before stock prices plummet and funding markets lock up. We show that liquidity spirals may be underestimated or completely overlooked when interactions between different types of contagion channels or institutions are ignored. We also find that financial stability is greatly affected by how institutions choose to respond to liquidity shocks, with some strategies yielding a “robust-yet-fragile" system. To demonstrate the method, we apply it to a highly granular data set on the South African banking sector and investment fund sector. We find that the risk of a liquidity spiral emerging increases when the pool of institutions' most liquid assets is reduced, while a liquidity injection by the central bank can dampen the spiral. We further show that a liquidity spiral may be due to the banking and fund sectors' collective dynamics, but can also be driven by an individual sector under some market conditions. The approach developed here canbe used to formulate interventions that specifically target the sector(s) causing the liquidity spiral.
- JEL Code
- G01 : Financial Economics→General→Financial Crises
G17 : Financial Economics→General Financial Markets→Financial Forecasting and Simulation
G21 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Banks, Depository Institutions, Micro Finance Institutions, Mortgages
G23 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Non-bank Financial Institutions, Financial Instruments, Institutional Investors
G28 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Government Policy and Regulation