2020 Theses Doctoral

Law and Macro-Finance: The Legal Origins of Credit Booms and Busts

Borowicz, Maciej Konrad

Law and Macro-Finance is a theoretical framework explaining the relationship between law and the macro-financial variables of liquidity and leverage. The framework's central theoretical claim is that strong creditor rights exacerbate the procyclicality of liquidity and leverage. Strong creditor rights have that effect because they create different incentives in different parts of the economic cycle. Strong creditor rights encourage creditors to lend in a credit boom, thereby increasing leverage and making the economy vulnerable to shocks through various leveraged-related channels. However, in a credit bust, the enforcement of strong creditors' rights can trigger an economic downturn or make it more difficult for the economy to recover from the shocks. The normative part of the Law and Macro-Finance framework revolves around regulating liquidity primarily through a countercyclical design of the strength of creditors' rights in bankruptcy and collateral law to ensure adequate levels of leverage in different parts of the economic cycle. The key elements of bankruptcy and collateral law that could be used for that purpose are the rules establishing the strength of money market investors' rights, including bankruptcy safe harbors, true sales doctrine, and rules around collateral rehypothecation.