Financial institutions manage myriad sources of interest rate risk. We propose a new method to measure financial institutions’ residual interest rate risk using high-frequency financial market data. We provide theoretical justification for the method using a model of life insurance companies with endogenous interest rate risk management. Applying the method to U.S. insurers, we find that their interest rate risk management strategies are generally effective. Analyzing a panel of insurers confirms a key theoretical prediction: The effectiveness of interest rate risk management depends, in part, on the ability to create net worth.

The interaction of worsening fundamentals and strategic complementarities among investors renders identification of self-fulfilling runs challenging. We propose a dynamic model to show how exogenous variation in firms’ liability structures can be exploited to obtain variation in the strength of strategic complementarities. Applying this identification strategy to puttable securities offered by US life insurers, we find that at least 40% of the $18 billion run on life insurers by institutional investors during the 2007–8 crisis was amplified by self-fulfilling expectations. Our findings suggest that other contemporaneous runs in shadow banking by institutional investors may have had a self-fulfilling component.

This paper investigates the impact of unconventional monetary policy on firm financial constraints using the maturity extension program (MEP). Consistent with bond market segmentation and limits to arbitrage, around the MEP's announcement, stock prices rose for those firms more dependent on longer-term debt. These firms also issued more long-term debt during the MEP and expanded employment and investment. There is also evidence of “reach for yield” behavior, as the demand for riskier corporate debt also increased. Our results suggest that unconventional monetary policy might have relaxed financial constraints for some firms by inducing gap-filling behavior and affecting bond market risk premia.