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Domestic banks as lightning rods? Home bias during the Eurozone crisis

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  • Orkun Saka

Abstract

Governments and domestic banks in Europe have attracted criticism due to the heightening inclination of banks to hold more local sovereign debt in the midst of the crisis. This has traditionally been interpreted as an evidence of financial repression or moral suasion. By using a novel dataset on bank-level exposures to sovereign and private debt covering the entire Eurozone crisis, I confirm that sovereign debt has been reallocated from foreign to domestic banks at the peak of the crisis. Furthermore, this reallocation has been especially visible for banks as opposed to other domestic private agents and cannot be explained by the risk-shifting tendency of the banks located in troubled countries. However, in contrast to the previous literature focusing only on sovereign debt, I show that banks’ private sector exposures have suffered (at least) equally from a rising home bias. Finally, I present a direct information channel and demonstrate that foreign banks – free from moral suasion – located in informationally closer territories have relatively increased their exposures to crisis-countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Orkun Saka, 2017. "Domestic banks as lightning rods? Home bias during the Eurozone crisis," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 122, European Institute, LSE.
  • Handle: RePEc:eiq:eileqs:122
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    File URL: http://www.lse.ac.uk/europeanInstitute/LEQS/LEQSPaper122.pdf
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    Cited by:

    1. Maria Karadima & Helen Louri, 2020. "Bank competition and credit risk in the Euro area, 2005-2017: Is there evidence of convergence?," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 155, European Institute, LSE.
    2. Cimadomo, Jacopo & Ciminelli, Gabriele & Furtuna, Oana & Giuliodori, Massimo, 2020. "Private and public risk sharing in the euro area," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Home bias; Information asymmetries; Eurozone crisis; Sovereign debt;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F21 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Investment; Long-Term Capital Movements
    • F34 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - International Lending and Debt Problems
    • F36 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - Financial Aspects of Economic Integration
    • G01 - Financial Economics - - General - - - Financial Crises
    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

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