Credit Misallocation During the European Financial Crisis

Fabiano Schivardi, Enrico Sette and Guido Tabellini

No 2017/3, LEAP Working Papers from Luiss Institute for European Analysis and Policy

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 2004-2013, we find that, during the Eurozone financial crisis: (i) Under-capitalized banks were less likely to cut credit to non-viable firms. (ii) Credit misallocation increased the failure rate of healthy firms and reduced the failure rate of non viable firms. (iii) Nevertheless, the adverse effects of credit misallocation on the growth rate of healthier firms were negligible, and so were the effects on TFP dispersion. This goes against previous influential findings that, we argue, face serious identification problems. 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.

Keywords: Bank capitalization; zombie lending; capital misallocation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D23 E24 G21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 66 pages
Date: 2017-03-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ban, nep-eec, nep-fdg and nep-mac
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (79)

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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 (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)
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