TY  - JOUR
AU  - Gorton,Gary B.
AU  - Lewellen,Stefan
AU  - Metrick,Andrew
TI  - The Safe-Asset Share
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 17777
PY  - 2012
Y2  - January 2012
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17777
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w17777.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Gary B. Gorton
Yale School of Management
135 Prospect Street
P.O. Box 208200
New Haven, CT 06520-8200
Fax: 203/432-8931
E-Mail: Gary.Gorton@yale.edu

Stefan Lewellen
Yale School of Management
135 Prospect Street
New Haven, CT 06520
E-Mail: stefan.lewellen@yale.edu

Andrew Metrick
Yale School of Management
135 Prospect Street
P.O. Box 208200
New Haven, CT 06520
Tel: 203/432-3069
E-Mail: metrick@yale.edu
AB  - We document that the percentage of all U.S. assets that are “safe” has remained stable at about 33 percent since 1952. This stable ratio is a rare example of calm in a rapidly changing financial world. Over the same time period, the ratio of U.S. assets to GDP has increased by a factor of 2.5, and the main supplier of safe financial debt has shifted from commercial banks to the “shadow banking system.” We analyze this pattern of stylized facts and offer some tentative conclusions about the composition of the safe-asset share and its role within the overall economy.
ER  -