Global Banking, Financial Spillovers, and Macroprudential Policy Coordination

The gains from international macroprudential policy coordination are studied in a two-region, core-periphery macroeconomic model with imperfect financial integration and cross-border banking. Financial frictions occur at two levels: between firms and banks in each region, and between periphery banks and a global bank in the core region. Macroprudential regulation takes the form of a countercyclical tax on bank loans to domestic capital goods producers, which responds to real credit growth and is subject to a cost in terms of welfare. Numerical experiments, based on a parameterized version of the model, show that the welfare gains from macroprudential policy coordination are positive, albeit not large, for the world economy. In addition, these gains tend to increase with the degree of international financial integration. However, depending on the origin of financial shocks, they can also be highly asymmetric across regions.