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Business cycles : a role for imperfect competition in the banking system

Thesis advisor: Fabio Ghironi / Thesis advisor: Peter N. Ireland / Thesis advisor: Fabio Schiarrtarelli / My doctoral dissertation studies the effects of countercyclical bank markups on macroeconomic performance. The countercyclical pattern of bank markups constitutes a bank-supply channel that extends the credit channel to reinforce the same vicious circle: Credit is more expensive during recessions, so that firms and households postpone investment and work decisions, thereby deepening the recmsion. In the first chapter, I construct a bank balancesheet data set across I24 countries for 1991-2000. I show that ex-post bank markups are strongly countercyclical, even after controlling for financial development, bank concentration, operational costs, inflation, and reverse causation. The countercyclical pattern is explained by the highly procyclical entry of foreign banks that occurs mostly at the wholesale level, and signals the intention to spread to the retail level. My hypothesis is that wholesale entry triggers incumbents'limit-pricing strategies aimed at deterring entry in retail niches that in turn reduce bank markups. In the second chapter, I develop a DSGE setup in which the modeling of the banking system captures several of the features of the data. I find that market power in the fina.ncial system increases the volatility of all real variables, amplifies the business cycle, and reduces welfare. In the third chapter, I use a riariant of the New Keynesia,n model for a SOE and add the bank-supply ctrannel to the standard balancesheet channel, which links the condition of the borrower balance sheets to the default risk and the external finance premium. I show that bank markup increments, as a consequence of sudden capital outflows, end up increasing borrowing costs for firms, as well as damaging the financial position of firms. The bank-supply channel helps to explain the relatively large investment volatility typically exrperienced in emerging economies. These conclusions are robust to different monetary regimes. Results hold even with floating exchange rates, slow passthrough, and liabilities fully denominated in local currency. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2006. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BOSTON/oai:dlib.bc.edu:bc-ir_101589
Date January 2006
CreatorsMandelman, Federico Samuel
PublisherBoston College
Source SetsBoston College
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, thesis
Formatelectronic, application/pdf
RightsCopyright is held by the author, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise noted.

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