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Business Cycles, Credit Cycles and Bank Holdings of Sovereign Bonds: Historical Evidence for Italy 1861-2013

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  • Silvana Bartoletto
  • Bruno Chiarini
  • Elisabetta Marzano
  • Paolo Piselli

Abstract

We propose a joint dating of the Italian business and credit cycle on a historical horizon, by applying a local turning-point dating algorithm to the level of the variables. Along with short cycles, corresponding to traditional business cycle fluctuations, we also investigate medium cycles, because there is evidence that financial booms and busts are longer and persistent than the business cycle. After comparing our cycles with the prominent qualitative features of the Italian economy, we carry out some statistical tests for comovement between credit and business cycle and we propose a measure of asymmetry of this comovement, which proves to be weaker in recessions. We find evidence that credit and business cycle are poorly synchronized especially in the medium term, although, when credit and real contractions overlap, recessions are definitely more severe. We do not find evidence that credit leads the business cycle, both in the medium or in the short fluctuations. On the contrary, in the short cycle, we find some evidence that business cycle leads the credit one. Finally, credit and business cycle comovement increases when credit embodies public bonds held by banks, a bank financing to the public sector. However, in the post]WWII era, this financial backup to the public side of the economy has occurred at the expense of bank lending.

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  • Silvana Bartoletto & Bruno Chiarini & Elisabetta Marzano & Paolo Piselli, 2015. "Business Cycles, Credit Cycles and Bank Holdings of Sovereign Bonds: Historical Evidence for Italy 1861-2013," CESifo Working Paper Series 5318, CESifo.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5318
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    4. Guido Bulligan & Lorenzo Burlon & Davide Delle Monache & Andrea Silvestrini, 2019. "Real and financial cycles: estimates using unobserved component models for the Italian economy," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 28(3), pages 541-569, September.
    5. Lenarčič, Črt, 2021. "Estimating business and financial cycles in Slovenia," MPRA Paper 109977, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Gallegati, Marco & Giri, Federico & Palestrini, Antonio, 2019. "DSGE model with financial frictions over subsets of business cycle frequencies," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 152-163.
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    8. Silvana Bartoletto & Bruno Chiarini & Elisabetta Marzano & Paolo Piselli, 2018. "Banking Crises and Boom-Bust Dynamics: Evidence for Italy (1861-2016)," CESifo Working Paper Series 6972, CESifo.
    9. Xue, Wenjun & Zhang, Liwen, 2019. "Revisiting the asymmetric effects of bank credit on the business cycle: A panel quantile regression approach," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    10. Tholl, Johannes & Schwarzbach, Christoph & Pittalis, Sandro & von Mettenheim, Hans-Jörg, 2020. "Bank funding and the recent political development in Italy: What about redenomination risk?," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
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    12. Silvana Bartoletto & Bruno Chiarini & Elisabetta Marzano & Paolo Piselli, 2018. "Banking crises and business cycle: evidence for Italy(1861-2016)," Journal of Financial Economic Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 11(1), pages 34-61, October.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    financial cycle; bank credit; medium-term fluctuations;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N13 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N14 - Economic History - - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics; Industrial Structure; Growth; Fluctuations - - - Europe: 1913-

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