The Implementation of Central Bank Policy in China: The Roles of Commercial Bank Ownership and CEO Faction Membership

Michel Habib, Yushi Peng, Yanjie Wang and Zexi Wang

No 17918, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We examine the roles of bank ownership and CEO political faction membership in facilitating or hindering the implementation of central bank policy in China. Specifically, we examine the response of China's commercial banks to People's Bank of China (PBC) guidelines intended to decrease mortgage lending and to slow down the rise in residential property prices. We find that both bank ownership and faction membership matter. Central government-owned banks whose CEOs are members of the specialist finance faction within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) respond most strongly to PBC guidance, whereas provincial or city government-owned banks whose CEOs are members of a generalist faction respond least strongly. The implementation of PBC policy has real effects: in those cities where central government-owned banks with specialist CEOs constitute a larger percentage of total bank branches, house prices grew more slowly, as did the number of residential real estate transactions and the number of new listings. Where in contrast provincial and city government-owned banks with generalist CEOs dominate, the number of transactions grew faster; the rate of house price appreciation and the number of listings were however unaffected. We conclude that China's different levels of government and the CCP's different factions enjoy some discretion in responding to PBC guidance and that they exploit the discretion they are afforded to vary the strength of their response.

Keywords: Bank ownership; Central bank policy; Mortgage loans (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E58 G21 R30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-02
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP17918 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:17918

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP17918

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().