Tracking the Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic with the Use of High-Frequency Geo-Located Bank Transaction Data

Using geo-located transaction data from 2 million customers of ABN AMRO bank in the Netherlands, this paper distinguishes the economic effects of consumers responses to the Covid-19 pandemic from those attributable to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). We compare municipalities that experienced large Covid-19 outbreaks with municipalities that had few or no cases and find that during the first Covid-19 wave the scale of the outbreak in a municipality has a strong negative effect on physical transactions by consumers in that municipality. This behavioral response function of consumers towards the virus is however not constant over time. During the second Covid-19 wave, the behavioural effect of consumers towards the virus has no real impact on consumption

Informal institutions and corporate reputational exposure: the role of public environmental perceptions

Public awareness about issues surrounding the physical environment and climate change is becoming more important around the world. However, there is a lack of research on the association between environment-related perceptions and reputational exposure. Therefore, we know little about whether and how reputational exposure is shaped by institutional pressures, as it would be stipulated by the institutional theory. Using a sample of 643 firms from 19 European countries over the period 2015–2018, we aim to shed further light on this issue. Our results show that more environmentally-friendly public perceptions result in lower reputational exposure. This finding holds when, on an individual basis, we examine public opinions on energy, climate, and the introduction of related policies. To ensure robustness in our results, we conduct a number of analyses and tests designed to alleviate endogeneity and to correct sample bias

State-level wage Phillips curves

We examine reduced form versions of New Keynesian wage Phillips curves using monthly US state-level data for the period 1982-2016, taking account of the endogeneity of unemployment by instrumentation and the presence of common correlated effects (CCE). We find that theoretically coherent specifications taking account of the aggregate dynamics of unemployment may be estimated by the CCE estimator, whereas less efficient and potentially inconsistent methods differ and are problematic

Regulation and Bank Performance in Europe

This book provides insights into contemporary issues in banking research, post-crisis. It comprises a selection of state-of-the-art papers from the European Association of University Teachers of Banking and Finance Conference (otherwise known as the Wolpertinger Conference) held in September 2010. In particular, the book focuses on new approaches to investigating bank performance and banking sector risk and examines the implications for firm financing, in the wake of the financial crisis

Essays on Bank Efficiency : The Role of Financial Frictions, Business Cycles and Regulation

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Does executive ownership lead to excess target cash? The case of U.K. firms

Purpose The aim of this paper is to investigate the dynamics between executive ownership and excess cash policy in the UK. Design/methodology/approach The authors identify firms adopting an excess policy using a joint criterion of high cash and cash higher than the target. Logit analysis is used to estimate the impact of executive ownership and other governance characteristics on the probability of adopting an excess cash policy. Findings The results suggest that, in the UK, the impact of the executive ownership on the probability of adopting an excess cash policy is non-monotonic, in line with the alignment-entrenchment hypothesis. The results are robust to different definitions of excess cash policy, to alternative specifications of the regression model, to different estimation frameworks and to alternative proxies of ownership concentration. Research limitations/implications The authors’ approach provides a new measure of the excess target cash for the firm. They show the need to identify an excess target cash policy not only by using an empirical criterion and a theoretical target level of cash, but also by capturing persistence in deviation from the target cash level. The authors’ measure of excess target cash calls into questions findings from previous studies. The authors’ approach can be used to explore whether excess cash holdings of UK firms and the impact of managerial ownership have changed from before the crisis to after the crisis. Practical implications The authors’ measure of excess target cash allows identifying in practice levels of cash which are abnormal with respect to an equilibrium level. UK firms should be cautious in using executive ownership as a corporate governance mechanism, as this may generate suboptimal cash holdings and suboptimal firm value. Excess cash policy might be driven not only by a poor corporate governance system, but also by the interplay between agency costs of managerial opportunism and cost of the external finance which further research could explore. Originality/value Actually, “how much cash is too much” is a question that has not been addressed by the literature. The authors address this question. Also, this amount of cash allows the authors to study the extent to which executive ownership contributes to explain the out-of-equilibrium persistency in the cash level. </jats:sec

Financial Frictions, Efficiency and Risk: Evidence from the Euro Area

This paper employs a simultaneous equations approach to investigate the dynamics between financial frictions, efficiency and risk for eurozones commercial banks. We consider two related channels through which financial frictions may arise: informational and market structure imperfections, and allow for a possible reverse causation from efficiency to banks asset quality. The findings validate the presence of both channels of financial frictions and are consistent with the efficiency-lending quality hypothesis that low efficiency signals poor asset quality loans. Finally, our findings suggest that policies aimed at constraining banks degree of openness may ultimately direct management choices towards riskier investments