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How Do EU Banks’ Funding Costs Respond to the CRD IV? An Assessment Based on the Banking Union Directives Database

Thomas Krause, Eleonora Sfrappini, Lena Tonzer, Cristina Zgherea
IWH Discussion Papers, No. 12, 2024
Abstract
The establishment of the European Banking Union constitutes a major change in the regulatory framework of the banking system. Main parts are implemented via directives that show staggered transposition timing across EU member states. Based on the newly compiled Banking Union Directives Database, we assess how banks’ funding costs responded to the Capital Requirements Directive IV (CRD IV). Our findings show an upward trend in funding costs which is driven by an increase in cost of equity and partially offset by a decline in cost of debt. The diverging trends are most present in countries with an ex-ante lower regulatory capital stringency, which is in line with banks’ short-run adjustment needs but longer-run benefits from increased financial stability.
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The Effect of Bank Organizational Risk-management on the Price of Non-deposit Debt

Iftekhar Hasan, Emma Peng, Maya Waisman, Meng Yan
Journal of Financial Services Research, April 2024
Abstract

We test whether organizational risk management matters to bondholders of U.S. bank holding companies (BHCs), and find that debt financing costs increase when the BHC has lower-quality risk management. Consistent with bailouts giving rise to moral hazard among bank creditors, we find that bondholders put less emphasis on risk management in large institutions for which bailouts are expected ex-ante. BHCs that maintained strong risk management before the financial crisis had lower debt costs during and after the crisis, compared to other banks. Overall, quality risk management can curtail risk exposures at BHCs and result in lower debt costs.

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German Economy Ailing – Reform of the Debt Brake Is No Panacea

Timm Bönke, Oliver Holtemöller, Stefan Kooths, Torsten Schmidt, Timo Wollmershäuser
Wirtschaftsdienst, No. 4, 2024
Abstract
Eine zähe Konjunkturschwäche, schwindende Wachstumskräfte und ein stark erhöhter Krankenstand führen zur Unterauslastung der Produktionskapazitäten. Außen- wie binnenwirtschaftlich gibt es mehr Gegen- als Rückenwind. Hoffnung geben die Wirksamkeit der höheren Lohnabschlüsse 2024 und 2025, die für einen Anstieg des privaten Konsums sorgen können und gesamtdeutsche Rekordwerte für die Einnahmenquote der öffentlichen Hand. Eine Reform der Schuldenbremse durch stufenweises regelgebundenes Aktivieren nach einer Notlage und ein Hebesatz auf die Einkommensteuer könnten die Konjunkturabhängigkeit der Bundes- und Länderfinanzen verringern. Die Inflation dürfte 2024 auf 2,6 % zurückgehen.
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Unions as Insurance: Workplace Unionization and Workers' Outcomes During COVID-19

Nils Braakmann, Boris Hirsch
Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, No. 2, 2024
Abstract
We investigate to what extent workplace unionization protects workers from external shocks by preventing involuntary job separations. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as a plausibly exogenous shock hitting the whole economy, we compare workers who worked in unionized and non-unionized workplaces directly before the pandemic in a difference-in-differences framework. We find that unionized workers were substantially more likely to remain working for their pre-COVID employer and to be in employment. This greater employment stability was not traded off against lower working hours or labor income.
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Search Symbols, Trading Performance, and Investor Participation

Yin-Siang Huang, Hui-Ching Chuang, Iftekhar Hasan, Chih-Yung Lin
International Review of Economics and Finance, April 2024
Abstract

We investigate the relationships among search symbols, trading performance, and investor participation. We use two specific datasets from Google Trends’ search volume index. The search volume by number ticker significantly predicts high returns and high investor participation when applied by active retail investors investing in large firms. This does not hold true for less active retail investors who use Chinese company name tickers as their search terms. Our results indicate that the heuristic usage of number tickers to search for company information helps active retail investors to obtain better trading performance compared with less active retail investors who use Chinese company name tickers.

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Who Benefits from Place-based Policies? Evidence from Matched Employer-Employee Data

Philipp Grunau, Florian Hoffmann, Thomas Lemieux, Mirko Titze
IWH Discussion Papers, No. 11, 2024
Abstract
We study the wage and employment effects of a German place-based policy using a research design that exploits conditionally exogenous EU-wide rules governing the program parameters at the regional level. The place-based program subsidizes investments to create jobs with a subsidy rate that varies across labor market regions. The analysis uses matched data on the universe of establishments and their employees, establishment-level panel data on program participation, and regional scores that generate spatial discontinuities in program eligibility and generosity. These rich data enable us to study the incidence of the place-based program on different groups of individuals. We find that the program helps establishments create jobs that disproportionately benefit younger and less-educated workers. Funded establishments increase their wages but, unlike employment, wage gains do not persist in the long run. Employment effects estimated at the local area level are slightly larger than establishment-level estimates, suggesting limited spillover effects. Using subsidy rates as an instrumental variable for actual subsidies indicates that it costs approximately EUR 25,000 to create a new job in the economically disadvantaged areas targeted by the program.
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Deutsche Wirtschaft kränkelt – Reform der Schuldenbremse kein Allheilmittel

Dienstleistungsauftrag des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz, No. 1, 2024
Abstract
Die Wirtschaft in Deutschland ist angeschlagen. Eine bis zuletzt zähe konjunkturelle Schwächephase geht mit schwindenden Wachstumskräften einher. In der lahmenden gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung überlagern sich somit konjunkturelle und strukturelle Faktoren. Zwar dürfte ab dem Frühjahr eine Erholung einsetzen, die Dynamik wird aber insgesamt nicht allzu groß ausfallen. Zeitlich verzögert und in abgeschwächter Form hat das konjunkturelle Grundmuster, das die Institute im vergangenen Herbstgutachten gezeichnet hatten, im Prognosezeitraum weiterhin Bestand. Im laufenden Jahr avanciert der private Konsum zur wichtigsten Triebkraft für die Konjunktur. Nachdem der ab Mitte 2021 einsetzende Teuerungsschub die Massenkaufkraft zwei Jahre lang drastisch geschmälert hatte, steigen die real verfügbaren Einkommen nun wieder deutlich. Zum einen bildet sich der kräftige Preisauftrieb weiter zurück, zum anderen werden nun mehr und mehr höhere Lohnabschlüsse wirksam, die zunächst nur verzögert an die hohe Geldentwertung angepasst werden konnten. Zudem schlägt auch bei den monetären Sozialleistungen in beiden Prognosejahren wieder ein deutliches reales Plus zu Buche. Damit fließt insgesamt mehr Kaufkraft an private Haushalte. Während somit in diesem Jahr die konsumbezogenen Auftriebskräfte dominieren, trägt im kommenden Jahr vermehrt das Auslandsgeschäft die Konjunktur. Alles in allem revidieren die Institute ihre Prognose für die Veränderung des Bruttoinlandsprodukts im laufenden Jahr gegenüber ihrem Herbstgutachten deutlich um 1,2 Prozentpunkte nach unten auf nunmehr 0,1 %. Die Prognose für die Rate im kommenden Jahr bleibt mit 1,4 % nahezu unverändert (Rücknahme um 0,1 Prozentpunkte), geht aber mit einem um über 30 Mrd. Euro geringeren Volumen der Wirtschaftsleistung einher. Die Werte für die jahresdurchschnittliche Veränderung überzeichnen die Unterschiede in der konjunkturellen Dynamik beider Jahre, die ausweislich der jeweiligen Verlaufsraten mit 1,0 % und 1,5 % weniger ausgeprägt sind. Gleichwohl verlagert sich die Erholung nunmehr stärker in das kommende Jahr.
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Inflation Concerns and Green Product Consumption: Evidence from a Nationwide Survey and a Framed Field Experiment

Sabrina Jeworrek, Lena Tonzer
IWH Discussion Papers, No. 10, 2024
Abstract
Promoting green product consumption is one important element in building a sustainable society. Yet green products are usually more costly. In times of high inflation, not only budget constraints but also the fear that prices will continue to rise might dampen green product consumption and, hence, limit the effectiveness of exerted efforts to promote sustainable behaviors. To test this suggestion, we conducted a Germany-wide survey with almost 1,200 respondents, followed by a framed field experiment (N=500) to confirm causality. In the survey, respondents’ stated “green” purchasing behavior is, as to be expected, positively correlated with concerns about climate change. It is also negatively correlated with concerns about future inflation and energy costs, but after controlling for observable characteristics such as income and educational level only the correlation with concerns about future prices remains significant. This result is driven by individuals with below-median environmental attitude. In the framed field experiment, we use the priming method to manipulate the saliency of inflation concerns. Whereas sizably relaxing the budget constraint (i.e., by 50 percent) has no impact on the share of organic products in participants’ baskets, the priming significantly decreases the share of organic products for individuals with below-median environmental attitude, similar to the survey data.
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Declining Business Dynamism in Europe: The Role of Shocks, Market Power, and Technology

Filippo Biondi, Sergio Inferrera, Matthias Mertens, Javier Miranda
VoxEU CEPR, 2024
Abstract
We study changes in business dynamism in Europe after 2000 using novel micro-aggregated data that we collected for 19 European countries. In all countries, we document a broad-based decline in job reallocation rates that concerns most economic sectors and size classes. This decline is mainly driven by dynamics within sectors, size, and age classes rather than by compositional changes. Large and mature firms experience the strongest decline in job reallocation rates. Simultaneously, the employment shares of young firms decline. Consistent with US evidence, firms’ employment has become less responsive to productivity shocks. However, the dispersion of firms’ productivity shocks has decreased too. To enhance our understanding of these patterns, we derive and apply a novel firm-level framework that relates changes in firms’ sales, market power, wages, and production technology to firms’ responsiveness and job reallocation.
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Climate Stress Tests, Bank Lending, and the Transition to the Carbon-neutral Economy

Larissa Fuchs, Huyen Nguyen, Trang Nguyen, Klaus Schaeck
IWH Discussion Papers, No. 9, 2024
Abstract
We ask if bank supervisors’ efforts to combat climate change affect banks’ lending and their borrowers’ transition to the carbon-neutral economy. Combining information from the French supervisory agency’s climate pilot exercise with borrowers’ emission data, we first show that banks that participate in the exercise increase lending to high-carbon emitters but simultaneously charge higher interest rates. Second, participating banks collect new information about climate risks, and boost lending for green purposes. Third, receiving credit from a participating bank facilitates borrowers’ efforts to improve environmental performance. Our findings establish a hitherto undocumented link between banking supervision and the transition to net-zero.
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