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Changes in Bank Leverage: Evidence from US Bank Holding Companies

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  • O'Brien, Martin

    (Central Bank of Ireland)

  • Whelan, Karl

    (University College Dublin)

Abstract

This paper examines how banks respond to shocks to their equity. If banks react to equity shocks by more than proportionately adjusting liabilities, then this will tend to generate a positive correlation between asset growth and leverage growth. However, we show that in the presence of changes in liabilities that are uncorrelated with shocks to equity, a positive correlation of this sort can occur without banks adjusting to equity shocks by more than proportionately adjusting liabilities. The paper uses data from US bank holding companies to estimate an empirical model of bank balance sheet adjustment. We identify shocks to equity as well as orthogonal shocks to bank liabilities and show that both equity and liabilities tend to adjust to move leverage towards target ratios. We also show that banks allow leverage ratios to fall in response to positive equity shocks, though this pattern is weaker for large banks, which are more active in adjusting liabilities after these shocks. We show how this explains why large banks have lower correlations between asset growth and leverage growth.

Suggested Citation

  • O'Brien, Martin & Whelan, Karl, 2014. "Changes in Bank Leverage: Evidence from US Bank Holding Companies," Research Technical Papers 01/RT/14, Central Bank of Ireland.
  • Handle: RePEc:cbi:wpaper:01/rt/14
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank Leveraging; Bank Holding Companies; Equity Shocks.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E32 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Business Fluctuations; Cycles
    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E51 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Money Supply; Credit; Money Multipliers
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

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