Financial systems are crucial to the allocation of resources in a modern economy. They channel household savings to the corporate sector and allocate investment funds among firms; they allow intertemporal smoothing of consumption by households and expenditures by firms; and they enable households and firms to share risks. These functions are common to the financial systems of most developed economies. Yet the form of these financial systems varies widely. In the United States and the United Kingdom competitive markets dominate the financial landscape, whereas in France, Germany, and Japan banks have traditionally played the most important role. Why do different countries have such different financial systems? Is one system better than all the others? Do different systems merely represent alternative ways of satisfying similar needs? Is the current trend toward market-based systems desirable? Franklin Allen and Douglas Gale argue that the view that market-based systems are best is simplistic. A more nuanced approach is necessary. For example, financial markets may be bad for risk sharing; competition in banking may be inefficient; financial crises can be good as well as bad; and separation of ownership and control can be optimal. Financial institutions are not simply veils, disguising the allocation mechanism without affecting it, but are crucial to overcoming market imperfections. An optimal financial system relies on both financial markets and financial intermediaries.

比较金融系统 = Comparing financial systems

This paper studies the role of credit-supply factors in business cycle fluctuations. For this purpose, we introduce an imperfectly competitive banking sector into a DSGE model with financial frictions. Banks issue collateralized loans to both households and firms, obtain funding via deposits and accumulate capital from retained earnings. Margins charged on loans depend on bank capital-to-assets ratios and on the degree of interest rate stickiness. Bank balance-sheet constraints establish a link between the business cycle, which affects bank profits and thus capital, and the supply and cost of loans. The model is estimated with Bayesian techniques using data for the euro area. The analysis delivers the following results. First, the existence of a banking sector partially attenuates the effects of demand shocks, while it helps propagate supply shocks. Second, shocks originating in the banking sector explain the largest share of the fall of output in 2008 in the euro area, while macroeconomic shocks played a limited role. Third, an unexpected destruction of bank capital has a substantial impact on the real economy and particularly on investment.

Credit and Banking in a DSGE Model of the Euro Area

This thesis investigates the relationship between economic growth and financial development in developing countries over 1988-2001. Previous studies have generally used averaged data, for both developing and developed countries, and inappropriate estimation methods. In an attempt to reach some definitive conclusions, Generalised Method of Moments dynamic estimation is used with a newly collected panel of annual data to assess the relationship. The results show that while banks performance has a negative impact on growth, stock markets positively promote growth. To reach an overall conclusion about the impact of finance on growth and to solve the problems associated with the existence of multicollinearity among the different measures of financial development, principal components analysis is used to generate new, comprehensive measures of financial development. In assessing the link between the new measures and financial development and growth, the results support the existence of an overall positive relationship. The thesis also examines the behaviour of interest rates in developing and industrialised countries using individual and panel unit root tests. The results are sensitive to the choice of the test, country and time unit.

Stock markets, banks and economic growth

This paper presents a global model linking individual country vector error-correcting models in which the domestic variables are related to the country-specific variables as an approximate solution to a global common factor model. This global VAR is estimated for 26 countries, the euro area being treated as a single economy. This paper proposes two important extensions of previous research (see Pesaran, Schuermann and Weiner, 2004). First, it provides a theoretical framework where the GVAR is derived as an approximation to a global unobserved common factor model. Also using average pair-wise cross-section error correlations, the GVAR approach is shown to be quite effective in dealing with the common factor interdependencies and international comovements of business cycles. Second, in addition to generalised impulse response functions, we propose an identification scheme to derive structural impulse responses. We focus on identification of shocks to the US economy, particularly the monetary policy shocks, and consider the time profiles of their effects on the euro area. To this end we include the US model as the first country model and consider alternative orderings of the US variables. Further to the US monetary policy shock, we also consider oil price, US equity and US real output shocks.

Exploring the International Linkages of the Euro Area: a Global VAR Analysis

This paper studies the role of credit-supply factors in business cycle ∞uctuations. To this end, an imperfectly competitive banking sector is introduced into a DGSE model with flnancial frictions. Banks issue loans to both households and flrms, obtain funding via deposits and accumulate capital out of retained earnings. Margins charged on loans depend on bank capital-to-asset ratio and on the degree of interest rate stickiness. Bank balance-sheet constraints establish a link between the business cycle, which afiects bank proflts and thus capital, and the supply and the cost of loans. The model is estimated with Bayesian techniques using data for the euro area. We show that shocks originating in the banking sector explain the largest fraction of the fall of output in 2008 in the euro area, while macroeconomic shocks played a smaller role. We also flnd that an unexpected reduction in bank capital can have a substantial impact on the real economy and particularly on investment. JEL: E30; E32; E43; E51; E52;

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Credit and banking in a DSGE model of the euro area

. This paper empirically examines the interest rate pass-through at the euro area level. The focus is on the pass-through of official interest rates, approximated by the overnight interest rate, to longer-term market interest rates, which, in turn, are a proxy for the marginal costs for banks to attract deposits or grant loans, and therefore passed through to retail bank interest rates. Empirical results, on the basis of a (vector) error-correction and vector autoregressive model, suggest that the pass-through of official interest to market interest rates is complete for money market interest rates up to three months, but not for market interest rates with longer maturities. Furthermore, the immediate pass-through of changes in market interest rates to bank deposit and lending rates is found to be at most 50%, whereas the final pass-through is typically found to be close to 100%, in particular for lending rates. Empirical results for a sub-sample starting in January 1999 show qualitatively similar findings and are supportive of a quicker interest rate pass-through since the introduction of the euro. It is shown that the difference between the adjustment speed of bank deposit and lending rates (typically around one versus three months since the common monetary policy) can to a large extent significantly be explained by credit risk considerations.

Interest Rate Pass-Through: Empirical Results for the Euro Area

This paper presents an error-correction model of the interest rate pass-through process based on a marginal cost pricing framework including switching and asymmetric information costs. Estimation results for the euro area suggest that the proportion of the pass-through of changes in market interest rates to bank deposit and lending rates within one month is at its highest around 50%. The interest rate pass-through is higher in the long term and notably for bank lending rates close to 100%. Moreover, a cointegration relation exists between retail bank and comparable market interest rates. Robustness checks, consisting of impulse responses based on VAR models and results for a sub-sample starting in January 1999, show qualitatively similar findings. However, the sub-sample results are supportive of a quicker pass-through process since the introduction of the euro.

Retail Bank Interest Rate Pass-through: New Evidence at the Euro Area Level

This paper analyses the pricing of bank loans and deposits in euro area countries. We show that retail bank interest rates adjust not only to changes in short-term interest rates but also to long-term interest rates. This result, which is arguably intuitive for long-term retail bank rates, is also confirmed for bank interest rates on short-term instruments. The transmission of changes in short-term market interest rates along the yield curve is found to be a key factor explaining the sluggishness of retail bank interest rates. We also show that in the cases where we cannot reject that the adjustment of retail rates has changed since the introduction of the euro, this adjustment has become faster.

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Term Structure and the Sluggishness of Retail Bank Interest Rates in Euro Area Countries

This occasional paper explains why the bank lending survey was developed by the ECB and describes its main features. It discusses the importance of credit developments for both the economy and the functioning of monetary policy, and further clarifies why the survey was introduced. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates that the value added of implementing a bank lending survey for the euro area lies in particular in the way it provides greater insight into developments in credit standards, non-interest rate credit conditions and terms, the risk perception of banks and the willingness of banks to lend. Credit standards are the internal guidelines or criteria of a bank which reflect the bank’s loan policy. The terms and conditions of a loan refer to the specific obligations agreed upon by the lender and the borrower. This occasional paper also considers similar surveys conducted by the Federal Reserve System in the US and by the Bank of Japan.

The bank lending survey for the euro area

A striking development in the euro area financial markets since 1999 was the rapid growth of the corporate debt securities market. This paper offers a first empirical examination of this market since the introduction of the euro using macroeconomic data. It is shown that corporate debt issuance is positively correlated with mergers and acquisitions and with industrial production, taken as a proxy of investment expenditures or working capital. Substitution with other sources of finance is shown to be related to cost differentials. The timing and size of these explanatory factors of corporate debt securities issuance differ across maturity. The empirical findings also show that corporate bond spreads lag short-term interest rates and lead real economic activity. All this suggests that the euro area corporate bond market, though still young, is informative for monetary policy and may develop into a significant link in the euro area monetary policy transmission process.

https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/152598/1/ecbwp0164.pdf

Gabe de Bondt

Papers

Interest Rate Pass-Through: Empirical Results for the Euro Area

Retail Bank Interest Rate Pass-through: New Evidence at the Euro Area Level

Term Structure and the Sluggishness of Retail Bank Interest Rates in Euro Area Countries

The bank lending survey for the euro area

Euro area corporate debt securities market: first empirical evidence