Credit Misallocation During the European Financial Crisis

Fabiano Schivardi, Enrico Sette and Guido Tabellini

No 1704, EIEF Working Papers Series from Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF)

Abstract: Do banks with low capital extend excessive credit to weak firms, and does this matter for aggregate efficiency? Using a unique data set that covers almost all bank-firm relationships in Italy in the period 2008-2013, we find that, during the Eurozone financial crisis: (i) Under-capitalized banks cut credit to healthy firms (but not to zombie firms) and are more likely to prolong a credit relationship with a zombie firm, compared to stronger banks. (ii) In areas-sectors with more low-capital banks, zombie firms are more likely to survive and non-zombies are more likely to go bankrupt; (iii) Nevertheless, bank under-capitalization does not hurt the growth rate of healthy firms, while it allows zombie firms to grow faster. This goes against previous influential findings that, we argue, face a serious identification problem. Thus, while banks with low capital can be an important source of aggregate inefficiency in the long run, their contribution to the severity of the great recession via capital misallocation was modest.

Pages: 68 pages
Date: 2017, Revised 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban and nep-eff
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Credit Misallocation During the European Financial Crisis (2022)
Working Paper: Credit Misallocation During the European Financial Crisis (2018)
Working Paper: Credit Misallocation During the European Financial Crisis (2017)
Working Paper: Credit misallocation during the European financial crisis (2017)
Working Paper: Credit misallocation during the European financial crisis (2017)
Working Paper: Credit Misallocation During the European Financial Crisis (2017)
Working Paper: Credit Misallocation During the European Financial Crisis (2017)
Working Paper: Credit Misallocation During the European Financial Crisis (2017)
Working Paper: Credit Misallocation During the European Financial Crisis (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eie:wpaper:1704

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