Regulierung internationaler Finanzmärkte und Banken
Die Forschungsgruppe "Regulierung internationaler Finanzmärkte und Banken" analysiert internationale Kapitalströme und die Auswirkungen von Regulierungsänderungen auf die Finanzstabilität. Integrierte Finanzmärkte begünstigen eine effiziente Kapitalallokation und Risikoteilung – sie erleichtern aber auch die grenzüberschreitende Übertragung von Schocks.
Dementsprechend hat sich die Bankenregulierung in den letzten Jahren weiterentwickelt, wobei die vollen Auswirkungen dieser Reformen noch unklar sind. Daher konzentriert sich die Forschung der Gruppe auf zwei Bereiche:
Erstens werden die Haupttreiber internationaler Kapitalströme und deren Auswirkungen auf Finanzstabilität untersucht. Zeiten hoher Finanzintegration sind oft gefolgt von Krisen mit nachhaltigen realwirtschaftlichen Folgen. Ziel ist es, zu verstehen, wie eine stabile und effektive Kreditvergabe gewährleistet werden kann.
Zweitens wird untersucht, wie sich Veränderungen in der Regulierung und Aufsicht auf das grenzüberschreitende Bankgeschäft auswirken, insbesondere im Kontext der europäischen Integration. Dazu gehört die Bewertung des Trade-offs zwischen regulatorischer Harmonisierung und unbeabsichtigten Marktverzerrungen.
Zwei Datenprojekte tragen zu diesen Forschungsthemen bei: die International Banking Library, eine webbasierte Plattform für den Forschungsaustausch mit einem vierteljährlichen Newsletter, der mehr als 700 Abonnenten erreicht, und die Financial Markets Directives Database, die die Umsetzung der wichtigsten EU-Vorschriften im Bereich Finanzmärkte mit besonderem Schwerpunkt auf der Europäischen Bankenunion dokumentiert. Gemeinsam fördern sie eine evidenzbasierte Politikanalyse und erhöhen die Sichtbarkeit der Gruppe.
Forschungscluster
Wirtschaftliche Dynamik und StabilitätIhr Kontakt

- Abteilung Finanzmärkte
PROJEKTE
10.2021 ‐ 06.2025
Distributional Effects of Macroeconomic Policies in Europe (DEMAP)
Leibniz-Gemeinschaft
Das Projekt untersucht wie politische Maßnahmen auf dem Level der Europäischen Union, wie zum Beispiel der European Recovery Fund, die Ungleichheit zwischen Haushalten beeinflusst.
07.2017 ‐ 12.2022
Die politische Ökonomie der europäischen Bankenunion
Europäischer Sozialfonds (ESF)
Ursachen für nationale Unterschiede in der Umsetzung der Bankenunion und daraus resultierende Auswirkungen auf die Finanzstabilität.
01.2015 ‐ 12.2017
Dynamic Interactions between Banks and the Real Economy
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Referierte Publikationen

Elevated Uncertainty during the Financial Crisis: Do Effects on Subjective Well-being Differ across European Countries?
in: B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy, Nr. 2, 2019
Abstract
This paper focuses on the effect of uncertainty as reflected by financial market variables on subjective well-being. The analysis is based on Eurobarometer surveys, covering 18 countries over the period 2000–2013. Individuals report lower levels of life satisfaction in times of higher uncertainty approximated by stock market volatility. This effect is heterogeneous across respondents: the probability of being unsatisfied is higher for respondents who are older, unemployed, less educated, and live in one of the GIIPS countries of the Euro area. Furthermore, higher uncertainty in combination with a financial crisis increases the probability of reporting low values of life satisfaction.

Drivers of Systemic Risk: Do National and European Perspectives Differ?
in: Journal of International Money and Finance, March 2019
Abstract
With the establishment of the Banking Union, the European Central Bank has been granted the power to impose stricter regulations than the national regulator if systemic risks are not adequately addressed at the national level. We ask whether there is a cross-border externality in the sense that a bank’s systemic risk differs when applying a national versus a European perspective. On average, banks’ contribution to systemic risk is similar at the two regional levels, and so is the ranking of banks. Generally, larger banks and banks with a lower share of loans are more systemically important. The effects of these variables are qualitatively but not quantitatively similar at the national versus the European level.

Political Influence and Financial Flexibility: Evidence from China
in: Journal of Banking and Finance, February 2019
Abstract
This paper investigates how political influence affects firms’ financial flexibility and speed of adjustment toward target leverage ratios. We find that at the macro level, firms in environments with high political advantages, proxied by provincial affiliations with heads of state as well as political status and party rank of provincial leaders, adjust faster. At the micro level, firms that are state-owned, have CPC members as executives, or bear low exposure to changes in political uncertainty adjust faster. When interacted, the micro-level political factors have more significant impact.

Banks Response to Higher Capital Requirements: Evidence from a Quasi-natural Experiment
in: Review of Financial Studies, Nr. 1, 2019
Abstract
We study the impact of higher capital requirements on banks’ balance sheets and their transmission to the real economy. The 2011 EBA capital exercise is an almost ideal quasi-natural experiment to identify this impact with a difference-in-differences matching estimator. We find that treated banks increase their capital ratios by reducing their risk-weighted assets, not by raising their levels of equity, consistent with debt overhang. Banks reduce lending to corporate and retail customers, resulting in lower asset, investment, and sales growth for firms obtaining a larger share of their bank credit from the treated banks.

Big Fish in Small Banking Ponds? Cost Advantages and Foreign Affiliate Presences
in: Journal of International Money and Finance, 2018
Abstract
We distinguish cost advantage at home from cost advantage vis-à-vis incumbent banks in destination markets to explain the probability of foreign bank affiliate lending. We combine detailed affiliate lending data of all German banks with public bank micro data from 59 destination markets. The likelihood to operate foreign affiliates depends positively on both types of cost advantage. Only cost advantage at home is economically significant. Generally, risk, return, and unobservable bank traits explain a larger share of the variation in foreign affiliate operations. Less profitable, more risky, and larger banks are more likely to operate affiliates abroad.
Arbeitspapiere

Banks’ foreign homes
in: Deutsche Bundesbank Discussion Papers, Nr. 46, 2024
Abstract
<p>Our results reveal that higher lending spreads between foreign and home markets redirect real estate backed lending towards foreign markets offering a higher interest rate, which provides evidence for "search for yield" behavior. This re-allocation is found especially for banks with more expertise on the foreign market due to a higher local activity and holds for commercial and residential real estate backed loans. Furthermore, "search for yield" behavior and a resulting increase in foreign real estate backed lending is found when macroprudential regulation is missing or misaligned between a bank’s country of residence and the destination country. When turning to the question of whether the detected search for yield behavior results in more risk, we find that especially better capitalized banks report higher forbearance ratios as they might face less stigma effects compared to low capitalized banks.</p>

The Effect of Firm Subsidies on Credit Markets
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 24, 2022
Abstract
<p>We use project-level information for the largest regional economic development program in German history to study how government subsidies to firms affect credit markets. We identify credit market responses by considering both, bank lending and firm borrowing during 1998-2019. We find that subsidies lead to larger lending volumes without crowding out credit to non-subsidized firms. Banks that are more exposed to subsidized firms exhibit moderately higher credit risk though. Firm subsidies support lending especially when credit constraints are elevated during the years of the financial crisis.</p>

Climate Change-Related Regulatory Risks and Bank Lending
in: ECB Working Paper, Nr. 2670, 2022
Abstract
We identify the effect of climate change-related regulatory risks on credit real-location. Our evidence suggests that effects depend borrower's region. Following an increase in salience of regulatory risks, banks reallocate credit to US firms that could be negatively impacted by regulatory interventions. Conversely, in Europe, banks lend more to firms that could benefit from environmental regulation. The effect is moderated by banks' own loan portfolio composition. Banks with a portfolio tilted towards firms that could be negatively a affected by environmental policies increasingly support these firms. Overall, our results indicate that financial implications of regulation associated with climate change appear to be the main drivers of banks' behavior.

Explaining Regional Disparities in Housing Prices Across German Districts
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 13, 2022
Abstract
Over the last decade, German housing prices have increased unprecedentedly. Drawing on quality-adjusted housing price data at the district level, we document large and increasing regional disparities: Growth rates were higher in 1) the largest seven cities, 2) districts located in the south, and 3) districts with higher initial price levels. Indications of price bubbles are concentrated in the largest cities and in the purchasing market. Prices seem to be driven by the demand side: Increasing population density, higher shares of academically educated employees and increasing purchasing power explain our findings, while supply remained relatively constrained in the short term.

Stress-ridden Finance and Growth Losses: Does Financial Development Break the Link?
in: IWH Discussion Papers, Nr. 3, 2022
Abstract
Does financial development shield countries from the pass-through of financial shocks to real outcomes? We evaluate this question by characterising the probability density of expected GDP growth conditional on financial stability indicators in a panel of 28 countries. Our robust results unveil a non-linear nexus between financial stability and expected GDP growth, depending on countries’ degree of financial development. While both domestic and global financial factors affect expected growth, the effect of global factors is moderated by financial development. This result highlights a previously unexplored channel trough which financial development can break the link between financial (in)stability and GDP growth.