How Does Economic Policy Uncertainty Affect Corporate Debt Maturity?
Xiang Li
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 5,
2022
Abstract
This paper investigates whether and how economic policy uncertainty affects corporate debt maturity. Using a large firm-level dataset for four European countries, we find that an increase in economic policy uncertainty is significantly associated with a shortened debt maturity. Moreover, the impacts are stronger for innovation-intensive firms. We use firms’ flexibility in changing debt maturity and the deviation to leverage target to gauge the causal relationship, and identify the reduced investment and steepened term structure as the transmission mechanisms.
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Monetary Policy through Exchange Rate Pegs: The Removal of the Swiss Franc‐Euro Floor and Stock Price Reactions
Gregor von Schweinitz, Lena Tonzer, Manuel Buchholz
International Review of Finance,
No. 4,
2021
Abstract
The Swiss National Bank abolished the exchange rate floor versus the Euro in January 2015. Using a synthetic matching framework, we analyze the impact of this unexpected (and therefore exogenous) policy change on the stock market. The results reveal a significant level shift (decline) in asset prices following the discontinuation of the minimum exchange rate. As a novel finding in the literature, we document that the exchange‐rate elasticity of Swiss asset prices is around −0.75. Differentiating between sectors of the Swiss economy, we find that the industrial, financial and consumer goods sectors are most strongly affected by the abolition of the minimum exchange rate.
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Technological Innovation and the Bank Lending Channel of Monetary Policy Transmission
Iftekhar Hasan, Xiang Li, Tuomas Takalo
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 14,
2021
Abstract
This paper studies whether and how banks’ technological innovations affect the bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission. We first provide a theoretical model in which banks’ technological innovation relaxes firms’ earning-based borrowing constraints and thereby enlarges the response of banks’ lending to monetary policy changes. To test the empirical implications, we construct a patent-based measurement of bank-level technological innovation, which can specify the nature of technology and tell whether it is related to the bank’s lending business. We find that lending-related innovations significantly strengthen the transmission of the bank lending channel.
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U.S. Monetary and Fiscal Policy Regime Changes and Their Interactions
Yoosoon Chang, Boreum Kwak, Shi Qiu
IWH Discussion Papers,
No. 12,
2021
Abstract
We investigate U.S. monetary and fiscal policy interactions in a regime-switching model of monetary and fiscal policy rules where policy mixes are determined by a latent bivariate autoregressive process consisting of monetary and fiscal policy regime factors, each determining a respective policy regime. Both policy regime factors receive feedback from past policy disturbances, and interact contemporaneously and dynamically to determine policy regimes. We find strong feedback and dynamic interaction between monetary and fiscal authorities. The most salient features of these interactions are that past monetary policy disturbance strongly influences both monetary and fiscal policy regimes, and that monetary authority responds to past fiscal policy regime. We also find substantial evidence that the U.S. monetary and fiscal authorities have been interacting: central bank responds less aggressively to inflation when fiscal authority puts less attention on debt stabilisation, and vice versa.
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Aktuelle Trends: Durchschnittliche Rentenbezugsdauer in den vergangenen Jahren konstant, aber mehr Neuzugänge in Altersrente
Birgit Schultz
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
No. 3,
2021
Abstract
Aufgrund des demographischen Wandels gibt es seit einiger Zeit eine Diskussion über die Erhöhung des Renteneintrittsalters zur Stabilisierung der Finanzierung der Altersrenten. Diese wird in der Öffentlichkeit teilweise sehr emotional geführt, da ein Teil der künftigen Rentnerinnen und Rentner befürchtet, finanziell schlechter gestellt zu werden oder durch einen späteren Renteneintritt unerwünschte gesundheitliche Folgen tragen zu müssen.
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Fiscal Policy and Fiscal Fragility: Empirical Evidence from the OECD
Makram El-Shagi, Gregor von Schweinitz
Journal of International Money and Finance,
July
2021
Abstract
In this paper, we use local projections to investigate the impact of consolidation shocks on GDP growth, conditional on the fragility of government finances. Based on a database of fiscal plans in OECD countries, we show that spending shocks are less detrimental than tax-based consolidation. In times of fiscal fragility, our results indicate strongly that governments should consolidate through surprise policy changes rather than announcements of consolidation at a later horizon.
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What Does Peer-to-Peer Lending Evidence Say About the Risk-taking Channel of Monetary Policy?
Yiping Huang, Xiang Li, Chu Wang
Journal of Corporate Finance,
2021
Abstract
This paper uses loan application-level data from a peer-to-peer lending platform to study the risk-taking channel of monetary policy. By employing a direct ex-ante measure of risk-taking and estimating the simultaneous equations of loan approval and loan amount, we provide evidence of monetary policy's impact on a nonbank financial institution's risk-taking. We find that the search-for-yield is the main driving force of the risk-taking effect, while we do not observe consistent findings of risk-shifting from the liquidity change. Monetary policy easing is associated with a higher probability of granting loans to risky borrowers and greater riskiness of credit allocation. However, these changes do not necessarily relate to a larger loan amount on average.
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Real Estate Transaction Taxes and Credit Supply
Michael Koetter, Philipp Marek, Antonios Mavropoulos
Deutsche Bundesbank Discussion Paper,
No. 4,
2021
Abstract
We exploit staggered real estate transaction tax (RETT) hikes across German states to identify the effect of house price changes on mortgage credit supply. Based on approximately 33 million real estate online listings, we construct a quarterly hedonic house price index (HPI) between 2008:q1 and 2017:q4, which we instrument with state-speci c RETT changes to isolate the effect on mortgage credit supply by all local German banks. First, a RETT hike by one percentage point reduces HPI by 1.2%. This effect is driven by listings in rural regions. Second, a 1% contraction of HPI induced by an increase in the RETT leads to a 1.4% decline in mortgage lending. This transmission of fiscal policy to mortgage credit supply is effective across almost the entire bank capitalization distribution.
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A Note of Caution on Quantifying Banks' Recapitalization Effects
Felix Noth, Kirsten Schmidt, Lena Tonzer
Abstract
Unconventional monetary policy measures like asset purchase programs aim to reduce certain securities' yield and alter financial institutions' investment behavior. These measures increase the institutions' market value of securities and add to their equity positions. We show that the extent of this recapitalization effect crucially depends on the securities' accounting and valuation methods, country-level regulation, and maturity structure. We argue that future research needs to consider these factors when quantifying banks' recapitalization effects and consequent changes in banks' lending decisions to the real sector.
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Switching to Good Policy? The Case of Central and Eastern European Inflation Targeters
Andrej Drygalla
Macroeconomic Dynamics,
No. 8,
2020
Abstract
The paper analyzes how actual monetary policy changed following the official adoption of inflation targeting in the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland and how it affected the volatilities of important macroeconomic variables in the years thereafter. To disentangle the effects of the policy shift from exogenous changes in the volatilities of these variables, a Markov-switching dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model is estimated that allows for regime switches in the policy parameters and the volatilities of shocks hitting the economies. Whereas estimation results reveal periods of high and low volatility for all three economies, the presence of different policy regimes is supported by the underlying data for the Czech Republic and Poland, only. In both economies, monetary policy switched from weak and unsystematic to strong and systematic responses to inflation dynamics. Simulation results suggest that the policy shifts of both central banks successfully reduced inflation volatility in the following years. The observed reduction in output volatility, on the other hand, is attributed more to a reduction in the size of external shocks.
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