Bank leverage cycles

Galo Nuño Barrau and Carlos Thomas

No 1222, Working Papers from Banco de España

Abstract: We study the cyclical fluctuations of leverage and assets of financial intermediaries and GDP in the United States. Leverage and assets are several times more volatile than GDP, and experience larger fluctuations for unregulated (‘shadow’) intermediaries than for regulated ones. While the leverage of regulated intermediaries is rather acyclical with respect to their assets and to GDP, the leverage of unregulated intermediaries is strongly procyclical in relation to their assets, and mildly procyclical in relation to GDP. We then build a general equilibrium model with both regulated and unregulated financial intermediaries. The latter borrow from investors in the form of short-term collateralized risky debt, and are subject to endogenous leverage constraints. We find that volatility shocks are key to generating fluctuations and comovements similar to those found in the data. Also, in a scenario with lower cross-sectional volatility, output is higher on average but more volatile, due to higher leverage of unregulated banks.

Keywords: financial intermediaries; short-term collateralized debt; limited liability; call option; put option; moral hazard; leverage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E20 G10 G21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 47 pages
Date: 2012-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-cba, nep-dge and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Bank Leverage Cycles (2017)
Working Paper: Bank leverage cycles (2013)
Working Paper: Bank Leverage Cyles (2013)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bde:wpaper:1222

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