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Professor Dr Tobias Berg

Professor Dr Tobias Berg
Current Position

since 2/16

Research Professor

Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH) – Member of the Leibniz Association

since 8/16

Associate Professor of Finance

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management

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Research Interests
  • bank lending
  • banking regulation
  • real effects of financial intermediation

Tobias Berg joined the institute as a Research Professor in February 2016. His research focuses on financial intermediation with a focus on bank lending, bank regulation, and the real effects of financial intermediation.

Tobias Berg holds the position of Associate Professor of Finance at Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.

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Professor Dr Tobias Berg
Professor Dr Tobias Berg
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Publications

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Credit Supply Shocks: Financing Real Growth or Takeovers?

Tobias Berg Daniel Streitz Michael Wedow

in: Review of Corporate Finance Studies, No. 2, 2024

Abstract

How do firms invest when financial constraints are relaxed? We document that firms affected by a large positive credit supply shock predominantly increase borrowing for transaction-based purposes. These treated firms have larger asset and employment growth rates; however, growth entirely stems from the increased takeover activity. Announcement returns indicate a low quality of the credit-supply-induced takeover activity. These results offer the possibility that credit-driven growth can simply reflect redistribution, rather than net gains in assets or employment.

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Spillover Effects in Empirical Corporate Finance

Tobias Berg Markus Reisinger Daniel Streitz

in: Journal of Financial Economics, No. 3, 2021

Abstract

Despite their importance, the discussion of spillover effects in empirical research often misses the rigor dedicated to endogeneity concerns. We analyze a broad set of workhorse models of firm interactions and show that spillovers naturally arise in many corporate finance settings. This has important implications for the estimation of treatment effects: i) even with random treatment, spillovers lead to a complicated bias, ii) fixed effects can exacerbate the spillover-induced bias. We propose simple diagnostic tools for empirical researchers and illustrate our guidance in an application.

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Mind the Gap: The Difference Between U.S. and European Loan Rates

Tobias Berg Anthony Saunders Sascha Steffen Daniel Streitz

in: Review of Financial Studies, No. 3, 2017

Abstract

We analyze pricing differences between U.S. and European syndicated loans over the 1992–2014 period. We explicitly distinguish credit lines from term loans. For credit lines, U.S. borrowers pay significantly higher spreads, but lower fees, resulting in similar total costs of borrowing in both markets. Credit line usage is more cyclical in the United States, which provides a rationale for the pricing structure difference. For term loans, we analyze the channels of the cross-country loan price differential and document the importance of: the composition of term loan borrowers and the loan supply by institutional investors and foreign banks.

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Working Papers

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Too Poor to Be Green? The Effects of Wealth on the Residential Heating Transformation

Tobias Berg Ulf Nielsson Daniel Streitz

in: SSRN Working Paper, 2024

Abstract

Using the near-universe of Danish owner-occupied residential houses, we show that an exogenous increase in wealth significantly increases the likelihood to switch to green heating. We estimate an elasticity of one at the median of the wealth distribution, i.e., a 10% increase in wealth increase raises green heating adoption by 10%. Effects are heterogeneous along the wealth distribution: all else equal, a redistribution of wealth from rich households to poor households can significantly increase green heating adoption. We further explore potential channels of our findings (pro-social preferences, financial constraints, and luxury goods interpretation). Our results emphasize the role of economic growth for the green transition.

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Out of Sight, out of Mind: Divestments and the Global Reallocation of Pollutive Assets

Tobias Berg Lin Ma Daniel Streitz

in: SSRN Working Papers, 2023

Abstract

Large emitters reduced their carbon emissions by around 11-15% after the 2015 Paris Agreement (“the Agreement”) relative to public firms that are less in the limelight. We show that this effect is predominantly driven by divestments. Large emitters are 9 p.p. more likely to divest pollutive assets in the post-Agreement period, an increase of over 75%. This divestment effect comes from asset sales and not from closures of pollutive facilities. There is no evidence for increased engagements in other emission reduction activities. Our results indicate significant global asset reallocation effects after the Agreement, shifting emissions out of the limelight.

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