IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cpr/ceprdp/10927.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Countercyclical Foreign Currency Borrowing: Eurozone Firms in 2007-2009

Author

Listed:
  • Bacchetta, Philippe
  • Merrouche, Ouarda

Abstract

Despite international financial disintegration, we document a dramatic increase in dollar borrowing among leveraged Eurozone corporates during the Great Financial Crisis. Using loan-level data, we trace this increase to the twin crisis in the credit market and in funding markets. The reduction in the supply of credit by Eurozone banks caused riskier borrowers to shift to foreign banks, in particular US banks. The coincident rise in the relative cost of euro wholesale funding and the disruptions in the FX swap market caused a rise in dollar borrowing from US banks, especially for firms in export-oriented sectors. Although global bank lending is often reported to amplify the international credit cycle, we show that foreign banking acted as a shock absorber that weathered the real consequences of the credit crunch in Europe.

Suggested Citation

  • Bacchetta, Philippe & Merrouche, Ouarda, 2015. "Countercyclical Foreign Currency Borrowing: Eurozone Firms in 2007-2009," CEPR Discussion Papers 10927, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    • Handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10927
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=10927
    Download Restriction: CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giannetti, Mariassunta & Laeven, Luc, 2012. "The flight home effect: Evidence from the syndicated loan market during financial crises," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(1), pages 23-43.
    2. Duchin, Ran & Sosyura, Denis, 2014. "Safer ratios, riskier portfolios: Banks׳ response to government aid," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 113(1), pages 1-28.
    3. Aghion, Philippe & Bacchetta, Philippe & Banerjee, Abhijit, 2004. "A corporate balance-sheet approach to currency crises," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 119(1), pages 6-30, November.
    4. repec:oup:qjecon:v:129:y:2013:i:1:p:1-59 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Bengt Holmstrom & Jean Tirole, 1997. "Financial Intermediation, Loanable Funds, and The Real Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 112(3), pages 663-691.
    6. Haselmann, Rainer & Wachtel, Paul, 2011. "Foreign banks in syndicated loan markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 2679-2689, October.
    7. Martin Schneider & Aaron Tornell, 2004. "Balance Sheet Effects, Bailout Guarantees and Financial Crises," Review of Economic Studies, Oxford University Press, vol. 71(3), pages 883-913.
    8. Robert N. McCauley & Patrick McGuire & Vladyslav Sushko, 2015. "Global dollar credit: links to US monetary policy and leverage," Economic Policy, CEPR;CES;MSH, vol. 30(82), pages 187-229.
    9. Samuel Bentolila & Marcel Jansen & Gabriel Jiménez & Sonia Ruano, 2013. "When Credit Dries Up: Job Losses in the Great Recession," Working Papers 2013-20, FEDEA.
    10. Calderon, Cesar & Kubota, Megumi, 2012. "Gross inflows gone wild : gross capital inflows, credit booms and crises," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6270, The World Bank.
    11. Matti Keloharju & Mervi Niskanen, 2001. "Why Do Firms Raise Foreign Currency Denominated Debt? Evidence from Finland," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 7(4), pages 481-496.
    12. Luc Laeven & Fabián Valencia, 2013. "The Real Effects of Financial Sector Interventions during Crises," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(1), pages 147-177, February.
    13. Alexander Popov & Neeltje Van Horen, 2015. "Exporting Sovereign Stress: Evidence from Syndicated Bank Lending during the Euro Area Sovereign Debt Crisis," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(5), pages 1825-1866.
    14. Broner, Fernando & Didier, Tatiana & Erce, Aitor & Schmukler, Sergio L., 2013. "Gross capital flows: Dynamics and crises," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 113-133.
    15. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769, October.
    16. Gian‐Maria Milesi‐Ferretti & Cédric Tille, 2011. "The great retrenchment: international capital flows during the global financial crisis," Economic Policy, CEPR;CES;MSH, vol. 26(66), pages 285-342, April.
    17. Federico Cingano & Francesco Manaresi & Enrico Sette, 2016. "Does Credit Crunch Investment Down? New Evidence on the Real Effects of the Bank-Lending Channel," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(10), pages 2737-2773.
    18. Nicola Cetorelli & Linda S Goldberg, 2011. "Global Banks and International Shock Transmission: Evidence from the Crisis," IMF Economic Review, Palgrave Macmillan;International Monetary Fund, vol. 59(1), pages 41-76, April.
    19. Becker, Bo & Ivashina, Victoria, 2014. "Cyclicality of credit supply: Firm level evidence," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 76-93.
    20. Brown, M. & Kirschenmann, K. & Ongena, S., 2009. "Foreign Currency Loans - Demand or Supply Driven?," Discussion Paper 2009-78, Tilburg University, Center for Economic Research.
    21. Haltenhof, Samuel & Jung Lee, Seung & Stebunovs, Viktors, 2014. "The credit crunch and fall in employment during the Great Recession," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 31-57.
    22. Acharya, Viral V & Eisert, Tim & Eufinger, Christian & Hirsch, Christian, 2014. "Real Effects of the Sovereign Debt Crisis in Europe: Evidence from Syndicated Loans," CEPR Discussion Papers 10108, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    23. Ivashina, Victoria & Scharfstein, David, 2010. "Bank lending during the financial crisis of 2008," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(3), pages 319-338, September.
    24. Burnside, Craig & Eichenbaum, Martin & Rebelo, Sergio, 2004. "Government guarantees and self-fulfilling speculative attacks," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 119(1), pages 31-63, November.
    25. Victoria Ivashina & David Scharfstein & Jeremy C. Stein, 2012. "Dollar funding and the lending behavior of global banks," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2012-74, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (US).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    More about this item

    Keywords

    corporate debt; credit crunch; foreign banks; money market;

    JEL classification:

    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G30 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:10927. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: (). General contact details of provider: .

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service hosted by the Research Division of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis . RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.