Die grüne Transformation, verstanden als ein Prozess, Energie zunehmend treibhausgasneutral zu erzeugen, kann mit marktwirtschaftlichen Instrumenten und dafür erforderlichen Rahmenbedingungen kostengünstiger umgesetzt werden als mit staatlicher Steuerung des Energieverbrauchs und der Energieerzeugung. Kosteneffizienz ist von entscheidender Bedeutung für die Bereitschaft und Fähigkeit der Bevölkerung, die Lasten der Transformation zu tragen, und für eine gerechte Verteilung der Lasten.

Rentenpaket II der Bundesregierung: Wie ist die Reform ökonomisch zu beurteilen und welche Auswirkungen hat das Paket auf den Beitragssatz in der gesetzlichen Rentenversicherung?

The establishment of the European Banking Union constitutes a major change in the regulatory framework of the banking system. Main parts are implemented via directives that show staggered transposition timing across EU member states. Based on the newly compiled Banking Union Directives Database, we assess how banks’ funding costs responded to the Capital Requirements Directive IV (CRD IV). Our findings show an upward trend in funding costs which is driven by an increase in cost of equity and partially offset by a decline in cost of debt. The diverging trends are most present in countries with an ex-ante lower regulatory capital stringency, which is in line with banks’ short-run adjustment needs but longer-run benefits from increased financial stability.

We test whether organizational risk management matters to bondholders of U.S. bank holding companies (BHCs), and find that debt financing costs increase when the BHC has lower-quality risk management. Consistent with bailouts giving rise to moral hazard among bank creditors, we find that bondholders put less emphasis on risk management in large institutions for which bailouts are expected ex-ante. BHCs that maintained strong risk management before the financial crisis had lower debt costs during and after the crisis, compared to other banks. Overall, quality risk management can curtail risk exposures at BHCs and result in lower debt costs.