Heterogeneous capital and misintermediation

A perennial problem of financial markets is that of maturity mismatch, or misintermediation, a situation in which financial intermediaries fund long-term, illiquid loans with short-term liabilities. A previous theory concludes that misintermediation can be responsible for business cycles and yields procyclical behavior of surprises in real interest rates. This paper proposes a finite horizon structural model with the introduction of heterogeneous capital to formalize and develop that theory. An extended model with labor as well as a “harvesting” technology further investigates the impact of misintermediation on real factor prices. The model implied relationship between unanticipated changes in real interest rates and real outputs over time is examined in a subsequent empirical study, which provides preliminary evidence consistent with the hypothesis of misintermediation.