Do Weak Supervisory Systems Encourage Bank Risk-taking?
Claudia M. Buch, G. DeLong
Journal of Financial Stability,
2008
Abstract
Weak bank supervision could give banks the ability to shift risk from themselves to supervisors. We use cross-border bank mergers as a natural experiment to test changes in risk and the impact of supervision. We examine cross-border bank mergers and find that the supervisory structures of the partners’ countries influence changes in post-merger total risk. An acquirer from a country with strong supervision lowers total risk after a cross-border merger. However, total risk increases when the target bank is located in a country with relatively strong supervision. This result is consistent with strong host regulators limiting the risky activities of their local banks. Foreign-owned competitors could then engage in the risky projects, especially if the foreign banks’ supervisors are not strong. An acquirer entering a country with strong supervision appears to shift risk back to its home country. The results suggest that bank supervisors can reduce total banking risk in their countries by being strong.
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Individualproduktivität und Alter: Empirische Befunde einer Arbeitseinkommensanalyse
Harald Lehmann
Wirtschaft im Wandel,
Nr. 5,
2007
Abstract
Der Zusammenhang zwischen dem Alter erwerbstätiger Personen und ihrer wirtschaftlichen Leistungsfähigkeit (Produktivität) ist vor dem Hintergrund einer älter werdenden und gleichzeitig schrumpfenden Bevölkerung von hoher ökonomischer Relevanz. Es ist in der Forschung unstrittig, daß Kompetenzverschiebungen im Altersverlauf auftreten. Ob sich diese als allgemeiner Alterseffekt zeigen, wird allerdings erst in jüngerer Zeit empirisch untersucht, was wohl vor allem der verbesserten Mikrodaten-Lage zu verdanken ist. In der hier vorgestellten Untersuchung wurden anhand tarifrechtlicher Informationen und weiterer Auswahlkriterien Personen identifiziert, die möglichst „leistungsnahe“ Arbeitsentgelte beziehen. Da letztere ein Indikator für die individuelle Arbeitsproduktivität sind, wurde auf ihrer Basis der darauf gerichtete Erklärungsbeitrag des Personenalters geschätzt. Grundlage der Auswertung war dabei der Mikrozensus 2000 für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland. Die Schätzergebnisse stützen in Übereinstimmung mit ähnlichen Untersuchungen den Befund einer zunächst ansteigenden und später wieder abfallenden Produktivitäts-Alters-Kurve. Sie legen aber auch nahe, daß der vermeintliche Leistungsverlust am Ende des Erwerbsalters eher gering ist. Berücksichtigt man, daß die vorliegende Operationalisierung der Bereinigung um verzerrende Senioritätseffekte dient – damit aber Produktivitätsvorteile aus langjähriger Tätigkeit am selben Arbeitsplatz vernachlässigt werden – so relativiert sich der vermeintliche „Altersnachteil“ weiter. Eine alterungsbedingte gesamtwirtschaftliche Produktivitäts- und damit Wohlstandsminderung ist insofern selbst in isolierter Betrachtung keineswegs eindeutig. Über die Erhöhung der Kapitalintensität, aber auch der totalen Faktorproduktivität (technischer Fortschritt) sowie durch zahlreiche Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten in der Personalpolitik (Weiterbildung, altersgerechter Arbeitseinsatz) ist auch in alternden Gesellschaften dauerhaft steigender Wohlstand realistisch.
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Why do we have an interbank money market?
Jürgen Wiemers, Ulrike Neyer
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 182,
2003
Abstract
The interbank money market plays a key role in the execution of monetary policy. Hence, it is important to know the functioning of this market and the determinants of the interbank money market rate. In this paper, we develop an interbank money market model with a heterogeneous banking sector. We show that besides for balancing daily liquidity fluctuations banks participate in the interbank market because they have different marginal costs of obtaining funds from the central bank. In the euro area, which we refer to, these cost differences occur because banks have different marginal cost of collateral which they need to hold to obtain funds from the central bank. Banks with relatively low marginal costs act as intermediaries between the central bank and banks with relatively high marginal costs. The necessary positive spread between the interbank market rate and the central bank rate is determined by transaction costs and credit risk in the interbank market, total liquidity needs of the banking sector, costs of obtaining funds from the central bank, and the distribution of the latter across banks.
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Intra-industry trade between European Union and Transition Economies. Does income distribution matter?
Hubert Gabrisch, Maria Luigia Segnana
IWH Discussion Papers,
Nr. 155,
2002
Abstract
EU-TE trade is increasingly characterised by intra-industry trade. For some countries (Czech Republic), the share of intra-industry trade in total trade with the EU approaches 60 percent. The decomposition of intra-industry trade into horizontal and vertical shares reveals overwhelming vertical structures with strong quality advantages for the EU and shrinking quality advantages for TE countries wherever trade has been liberalised. Empirical research on factors determining this structure in an EU-TE framework has lagged theoretical and empirical research on horizontal trade and vertical trade in other regions of the world. The main objective of this paper is, therefore, to contribute to the ongoing debate over EU-TE trade structures, by offering an explanation of intra-industry trade. We utilize a cross-country approach in which relative wage differences and country size play a leading role. In addition, as implied by a model of the productquality
cycle, we examine income distribution factors as determinates of the emerging
EU-TE structure of trade flows. Using OLS regressions, we find first, that relative
differences in wages (per capita income) and country size explain intra-industry trade, when trade is vertical and completely liberalized and second, that cross country differences in income distribution play no explanatory role. We conclude that if increasing wage differences resulted from an increasing productivity gap between highquality and low-quality industries, then vertical structures will, over the long-term create significant barriers for the increase in TE incomes and lowering EU-TE income differentials.
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