We endogenize asset liquidity and financing constraints in a dynamic general equilibrium model with search frictions on capital markets. Assets traded on frictional capital markets are only partially saleable. Liquid assets, such as fiat money, instead, are not subject to search frictions and can be used to insure idiosyncratic investment risks. Partially saleable assets thus carry a liquidity premium over fully liquid assets. We show that, in equilibrium, low asset saleability is typically associated with lower asset prices, tighter financing constraints, thus stronger demand for public liquidity. Lower asset liquidity feeds into real allocations, constraining real investment, consumption, and production.

What do small firms do when given a semi-permanent corporate income tax cut? We examine firm responses to a substantial reduction in the tax rate for small- and micro-profit enterprises (SMPE) in China, using gradual increases in the qualifying threshold during 2010–2016 for identification. Based on confidential tax returns, we find that newly qualified SMPEs with immediate tax savings increased investment and productivity, while there was no change in wages or payout to shareholders. There is some weak evidence the tax cut induced entry of micro-sized firms in financially constrained sectors. Yet its size-based design led to bunching and incentivized firms to slow down growth when they approached the size threshold.

The return on government debt is lower than that of assets with similar payoffs. We study optimal debt management and taxation when the government cannot directly redistribute toward the agents in need of liquidity but otherwise has access to a complete set of linear tax instruments. Optimal government debt provision calls for gradually closing the wedge between the returns as much as possible, but tax policy may work as a countervailing force: as long as financial frictions bind, it can be optimal to tax capital even if this magnifies the discrepancy in returns.

This paper studies economies where firms acquire capital in primary markets and then, after idiosyncratic productivity shocks, retrade it in secondary markets that incorporate bilateral trade with search, bargaining, and liquidity frictions. We distinguish between full or partial sales (one firm gets all or some of the other’s capital) and document several long- and short-run empirical patterns between these variables and the cost of liquidity, as measured by inflation. Quantitatively, the model can match these patterns plus the standard business cycle facts. We also investigate the impact of search frictions, monetary and fiscal policy, persistence in shocks, and returns to scale.