2008/01/01 by Markus K. Brunnermeier, Stefan Nagel, Lasse Heje Pedersen · 2 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Global Financial Crisis and Policies #Credit Risk and Financial Regulations #Monetary Policy and Economic Impact
paper · doi:10.1086/593088
openalex publication_date 2008/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
This paper documents that carry traders are subject to crash risk: i.e. exchange rate movements between high-interest-rate and low-interest-rate currencies are negatively skewed. We argue that this negative skewness is due to sudden unwinding of carry trades, which tend to occur in periods in which risk appetite and funding liquidity decrease. Funding liquidity measures predict exchange rate movements, and controlling for liquidity helps explain the uncovered interest-rate puzzle. Carry-trade losses reduce future crash risk, but increase the price of crash risk. We also document excess co-movement among currencies with similar interest rate. Our findings are consistent with a model in which carry traders are subject to funding liquidity constraints.