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The bank lending channel reconsidered

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Author Info
Milne , Alistair () (Cass Business School, UK and Monetary Policy and Research Department, Bank of Finland)
Wood, Geoffrey (Cass Business School, UK and Monetary Policy and Research Department, Bank of Finland)
Abstract

It has been widely accepted that constraints on the wholesale funding of bank balance sheets amplify the transmission of monetary policy through what is called the ‘bank lending channel’. We show that the effect of such bank balance sheet constraints on monetary transmission is in fact theoretically ambiguous, with the prior expectation, based on standard theoretical models of household and corporate portfolios, that the bank lending channel attenuates monetary policy transmission. We examine macroeconomic data for the G8 countries and find no evidence that banking sector deposits respond negatively and more than lending to tightening of monetary policy, as the accepted view of the bank lending channel requires. The overall picture is mixed, but these data generally suggest that deposits fluctuate procyclically and somewhat less over the business cycle than bank lending, and that total bank deposits, unlike bank lending, show little direct response to changes in interest rates. This suggests it is very unlikely that the bank lending channel amplifies monetary policy. Our paper has thus corrected a misunderstanding about the role of banks in monetary policy transmission that has persisted in the literature for some two decades.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Bank of Finland in its series Research Discussion Papers with number 2/2009.

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Length: 59 pages
Date of creation: 21 Jan 2009
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hhs:bofrdp:2009_002

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Postal: Bank of Finland, P.O. Box 160, FI-00101 Helsinki, Finland
Web page: http://www.bof.fi/en/tutkimus
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Related research
Keywords: credit channel; monetary transmission; bank financing constraints;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Capital and Ownership Structure

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References listed on IDEAS
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  16. Houston, Joel F. & James, Christopher, 1998. "Do bank internal capital markets promote lending?," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(6-8), pages 899-918, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  18. Kashyap, Anil K & Stein, Jeremy C & Wilcox, David W, 1996. "Monetary Policy and Credit Conditions: Evidence from the Composition of External Finance: Reply," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(1), pages 310-14, March. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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