Bank Bailouts and Moral Hazard: Evidence from Germany
Lammertjan Dam, Michael Koetter
Review of Financial Studies,
Nr. 8,
2012
Abstract
We use a structural econometric model to provide empirical evidence that safety nets in the banking industry lead to additional risk taking. To identify the moral hazard effect of bailout expectations on bank risk, we exploit the fact that regional political factors explain bank bailouts but not bank risk. The sample includes all observed capital preservation measures and distressed exits in the German banking industry during 1995–2006. A change of bailout expectations by two standard deviations increases the probability of official distress from 6.6% to 9.4%, which is economically significant.
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Size, Productivity, and International Banking
Claudia M. Buch, C. T. Koch, Michael Koetter
Journal of International Economics,
Nr. 2,
2011
Abstract
Heterogeneity in size and productivity is central to models that explain which manufacturing firms export. This study presents descriptive evidence on similar heterogeneity among international banks as financial services providers. A novel and detailed bank-level data set reveals the volume and mode of international activities for all German banks. Only a few, large banks have a commercial presence abroad, consistent with the size pecking order documented for manufacturing firms. However, the relationship between internationalization and productivity also yields two inconsistencies with recent trade models. First, virtually all banks hold at least some foreign assets, irrespective of size or productivity. Second, some fairly unproductive banks maintain commercial presences abroad.
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Is Rated Debt Arm's Length? Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions
Reint E. Gropp, C. Hirsch, Jan Pieter Krahnen
CFS Working Papers, No. 2011/10,
Nr. 10,
2011
Abstract
In this paper we challenge the view that corporate bonds are always arm's length debt. We analyze the effect of bond ratings on the stock price return to acquirers in M&A transactions, which tend to have significant effects on creditor wealth. We find acquirers abnormal returns to be higher if they are unrated, controlling for a wide variety of other effects identified in the literature. Tracing the difference in returns to distinct managerial decisions, we find that, everything else constant, rated firms increase their leverage in takeover transactions by less than their unrated counterparts. Consistent with a significant role for rating agencies, we find monitoring effects to be strongest when acquirer bonds are rated at the borderline between investment grade and junk. Finally, we are able to empirically exclude a large number of alternative explanations for the empirical regularities that we uncover.
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Do Banks Benefit from Internationalization? Revisiting the Market Power-Risk Nexus
Claudia M. Buch, C. T. Koch, Michael Koetter
Abstract
Recent developments on international financial markets have called the benefits of
bank globalization into question. Large, internationally active banks have
acquired substantial market power, and international activities have not
necessarily made banks less risky. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the
actual link between bank internationalization, bank risk, and market power.
Analyzing this link is the purpose of this paper. We jointly estimate the
determinants of risk and market power of banks, and we analyze the effects of
changes in terms of the number of foreign countries (the extensive margin) and
the volume of foreign assets (the intensive margin). Our paper has four main
findings. First, there is a strong negative feedback effect between risk and market
power. Second, banks with higher shares of foreign assets, in particular those held
through foreign branches, have higher market power at home. Third, holding
assets in a large number of foreign countries tends to increase bank risk. Fourth,
the impact of internationalization differs across banks from different banking
groups and of different size.
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Real Estate Prices and Bank Stability
Michael Koetter, Tigran Poghosyan
Journal of Banking and Finance,
Nr. 34,
2010
Abstract
Real estate prices can deviate from their fundamental value due to rigid supply, heterogeneity in quality, and various market imperfections, which have two contrasting effects on bank stability. Higher prices increase the value of collateral and net wealth of borrowers and thus reduce the likelihood of credit defaults. In contrast, persistent deviations from fundamentals may foster the adverse selection of increasingly risky creditors by banks seeking to expand their loan portfolios, which increases bank distress probabilities. We test these hypotheses using unique data on real estate markets and banks in Germany. House price deviations contribute to bank instability, but nominal house price developments do not. This finding corroborates the importance of deviations from the fundamental value of real estate, rather than just price levels or changes alone, when assessing bank stability.
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Subsidized Vocational Training: Stepping Stone or Trap? An Evaluation Study for East Germany
Eva Dettmann, Jutta Günther
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 21,
2009
Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze whether the formally equal qualifications acquired during a subsidized vocational education induce equal employment opportunities compared to regular vocational training. Using replacement matching on the basis of a statistical distance function, we are able to control for selection effects resulting from different personal and profession-related characteristics, and thus, to identify an unbiased effect of the public support. Besides the ‘total effect’ of support, it is of special interest if the effect is stronger for subsidized youths in external training compared to persons in workplace-related training. The analysis is based on unique and very detailed data, the Youth Panel of the Halle Centre for Social Research (zsh).
The results show that young people who successfully completed a subsidized vocational education are disadvantaged regarding their employment opportunities even when controlling for personal and profession-related influences on the employment prospects. Besides a quantitative effect, the analysis shows that the graduates of subsidized training work in slightly worse (underqualified) and worse paid jobs than the adolescents in the reference group. The comparison of both types of subsidized vocational training, however, does not confirm the expected stronger effect for youths in external vocational education compared to workplace-related training.
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Warum exportiert der Osten so wenig? Eine empirische Analyse der Exportaktivitäten deutscher Bundesländer
Götz Zeddies
AStA - Wirtschafts- und Sozialstatistisches Archiv,
Nr. 4,
2009
Abstract
In den ersten Jahren nach der Vereinigung gingen die Warenausfuhren der Neuen Bundesländer mit dem Zusammenbruch des COMECON-Handels zunächst um 70% zurück. Obgleich die ostdeutschen Länder seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre durchweg höhere Exportzuwächse verzeichneten als die westdeutschen, sind ihre Exportquoten nach wie vor vergleichsweise niedrig. Während über einen langen Zeitraum hinweg die preislichen Wettbewerbsnachteile der ostdeutschen Industrie als wesentliche Ursache für deren Exportschwäche angesehen wurden, sind mittlerweile die strukturellen Defizite der Neuen Länder in den Mittelpunkt gerückt. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird auf der Basis bilateraler Außenhandelsdaten der deutschen Bundesländer und mit Hilfe eines klassischen Gravitationsmodells gezeigt, dass letzteres die Handelsströme der Neuen Länder nicht hinreichend erklären kann. Erweitert man den Modellansatz jedoch um zusätzliche strukturelle unabhängige Variablen, können diese die im Vergleich zu Westdeutschland geringeren Exportvolumina Ostdeutschlands nahezu vollständig erklären. Demzufolge sind die kleinteilige Unternehmensstruktur und der relativ geringe Anteil des Verarbeitenden Gewerbes an der Bruttowertschöpfung wesentliche Ursachen der schwachen Exportleistung der Neuen Länder.
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Spillover Effects of Spatial Growth Poles - a Reconciliation of Conflicting Policy Targets?
Alexander Kubis, Mirko Titze, Joachim Ragnitz
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 8,
2007
Abstract
Regional economic policy faces the challenge of two competing policy goals - reducing regional economic disparities vs. promoting economic growth. The allocation of public funds has to weigh these goals particularly under the restriction of scarce financial re- sources. If, however, some region turns out to be a regional growth pole with positive spillovers to its disadvantaged periphery, regional policies could be designed to recon- cile the conflicting targets. In this case, peripheral regions could indirectly participate in the economic development of their growing cores. We start our investigation by defining and identifying such growth poles among German regions on the NUTS 3 administrative level based on spatial and sectoral effects. Using cluster analysis, we determine significant characteristics for the general identification of growth poles. Patterns in the sectoral change are identified by means of the change in the employment. Finally, we analyze whether and to what extent these growth poles ex- ert spatial spillover effects on neighbouring regions and thus mitigate contradictory in- terests in regional public policy. For this purpose, we apply a Spatial-Cross-Regressive- Model (SCR-Model) including the change in the secondary sector which allows to con- sider functional economic relations on the administrative level chosen (NUTS 3).
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Slippery Slopes of Stress: Ordered Failure Events in German Banking
Thomas Kick, Michael Koetter
Journal of Financial Stability,
Nr. 2,
2007
Abstract
Outright bank failures without prior indication of financial instability are very rare. In fact, banks can be regarded as troubled to varying degrees before outright closure. But failure studies usually neglect the ordinal nature of bank distress. We distinguish four different kinds of increasingly severe events on the basis of the distress database of the Deutsche Bundesbank. Only the worst distress event entails a bank to exit the market. Since the four categories of hazard functions are not proportional, we specify a generalized ordered logit model to estimate respective probabilities of distress simultaneously. We find that the likelihood of ordered distress events changes differently in response to given changes in the financial profiles of banks. Consequently, bank failure studies should account more explicitly for the different shades of distress. This allows an assessment of the relative importance of financial profile components for different degrees of bank distress.
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„Arbeitsplatzausstattung“ und „Arbeitsplatzlücke“ nach Geschlechtern in Ost- und Westdeutschland
Hans-Ulrich Brautzsch, Johann Fuchs, Cornelia Lang
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 9,
2006
Abstract
In dem vorliegenden Aufsatz werden (a) Umfang und Struktur der vorhandenen Arbeitsplätze nach Geschlechtern in Ost- und Westdeutschland, (b) das geschlechtsspezifische Ausmaß der „Arbeitplatzlücke“ in beiden Großregionen sowie (c) die Ursachen für die – gemessen an Westdeutschland – höhere „Arbeitsplatzlücke“ in Ostdeutschland auf der Grundlage von Daten der Regionalen Volkswirtschaftlichen Gesamtrechnungen und der Bundesgentur für Arbeit untersucht. Die Analyse zeigt, dass im Jahr 2003 die „Arbeitsplatzausstattung“ je 1000 Erwerbsfähigen in Ostdeutschland fast genau so hoch war wie in Westdeutschland. Bei den Frauen lag sie sogar über dem westdeutschen Vergleichswert. Dennoch ist die Diskrepanz zwischen dem Arbeitsangebot und der Nachfrage bei den ostdeutschen Frauen und Männern erheblich größer. Dies ist zum einen auf strukturelle Ursachen und zum anderen auf die höhere Erwerbsneigung der ostdeutschen Frauen zurückzuführen, die insbesonde durch das tradierte Verhaltensmuster nach Erwerbsarbeit sowie die geringeren Haushalteinkommen in Ostdeutschland bedingt ist.
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