IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-00554719.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Banks' risk race: A signaling explanation

Author

Listed:
  • Radu Vranceanu

    (ESSEC Business School)

  • Damien Besancenot

    (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord (ancienne affiliation) - UP13 - Université Paris 13 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

Many observers argue that the abnormal accumulation of risk by banks has been one of the major causes of the 2007-2009 financial turmoil. But what could have pushed banks to engage in such a risk race? The answer brought by this paper builds on the classical signaling model by Spence. If banks' returns can be observed while risk cannot, less efficient banks can hide their type by taking more risks and paying the same returns as the efficient banks. The latter can signal themselves by taking even higher risks and delivering bigger returns. The game presents several equilibria that are all characterized by excessive risk taking as compared to the perfect information case.

Suggested Citation

  • Radu Vranceanu & Damien Besancenot, 2010. "Banks' risk race: A signaling explanation," Post-Print hal-00554719, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00554719
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://essec.hal.science/hal-00554719
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://essec.hal.science/hal-00554719/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vranceanu, Radu & Sutan, Angela & Dubart, Delphine, 2012. "Trust and financial trades: Lessons from an investment game where reciprocators can hide behind probabilities," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 72-78.
    2. Arnoud W.A. Boot & Matej Marinc, 2006. "Competition and Entry in Banking: Implications for Stability and Capital Regulation," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 06-015/2, Tinbergen Institute.
    3. Michael Spence, 2002. "Signaling in Retrospect and the Informational Structure of Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(3), pages 434-459, June.
    4. Radu Vranceanu & Delphine Dubart & Maxime Laot, 2010. "Une échelle de mesure de la connaissance en raisonnement économique et résultats d'une enquête menée en décembre 2009," Post-Print hal-00542948, HAL.
    5. Berger, Allen N. & DeYoung, Robert, 1997. "Problem loans and cost efficiency in commercial banks," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 849-870, June.
    6. Baroni, Michel & Barthélémy, Fabrice & Mokrane, Mahdi, 2005. "A PCA Factor Repeat Sales Index (1973-2001) To Forecast Apartment Prices in Paris (France)," ESSEC Working Papers DR 05002, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    7. Haslem, John A. & Scheraga, Carl A. & Bedingfield, James P., 1999. "DEA efficiency profiles of U.S. banks operating internationally," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(2), pages 165-182, June.
    8. Claudio Borio, 2008. "The financial turmoil of 2007-?: a preliminary assessment and some policy considerations," BIS Working Papers 251, Bank for International Settlements.
    9. Radu Vranceanu, 2009. "Four Myths and a Financial Crisis," Post-Print hal-00554704, HAL.
    10. Batista, Catia & Potin, Jacques, 2008. "International Specialization and the Return to Capital, 1976-2000," ESSEC Working Papers DR 08001, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    11. Douglas W. Diamond & Raghuram G. Rajan, 2009. "The Credit Crisis: Conjectures about Causes and Remedies," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(2), pages 606-610, May.
    12. Pomfret, Richard, 2010. "The financial sector and the future of capitalism," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 22-37, March.
    13. Nigel Pain & Rebecca Riley & Martin Weale, 2002. "The UK Economy," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 181(1), pages 47-54, July.
    14. Kahane, Yehuda, 1977. "Capital adequacy and the regulation of financial intermediaries," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 207-218, October.
    15. Koehn, Michael & Santomero, Anthony M, 1980. "Regulation of Bank Capital and Portfolio Risk," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 35(5), pages 1235-1244, December.
    16. Markus K. Brunnermeier, 2009. "Deciphering the Liquidity and Credit Crunch 2007-2008," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(1), pages 77-100, Winter.
    17. Nigel Pain & Rebecca Riley & Martin Weale, 2002. "The UK Economy," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 180(1), pages 34-40, April.
    18. Harry Markowitz, 1952. "Portfolio Selection," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 7(1), pages 77-91, March.
    19. Riley, John G., 1975. "Competitive signalling," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 10(2), pages 174-186, April.
    20. VanHoose, David, 2007. "Theories of bank behavior under capital regulation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(12), pages 3680-3697, December.
    21. Nigel Pain & Rebecca Riley & Martin Weale, 2002. "The UK Economy," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 179(1), pages 44-50, January.
    22. Batista, Catia & Potin, Jacques, 2006. "Stages of Diversification and Capital Accumulation in an Heckscher-Ohlin World, 1975-1995," ESSEC Working Papers DR 06008, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    23. Donald P. Morgan, 2002. "Rating Banks: Risk and Uncertainty in an Opaque Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 874-888, September.
    24. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Besancenot, Damien & Huynh, Kim & Vranceanu, Radu, 2009. "Desk rejection in an academic publication market model with matching frictions," ESSEC Working Papers DR 09008, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    2. Powell, Andrew & Miller, Marcus & Maier, Antonia, 2011. "Prudent Banks and Creative Mimics: Can We Tell the Difference?," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 3958, Inter-American Development Bank.
    3. Gombola, Michael J. & Ho, Amy Yueh-Fang & Huang, Chin-Chuan, 2016. "The effect of leverage and liquidity on earnings and capital management: Evidence from U.S. commercial banks," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 35-58.
    4. Lu, Yunlin & Guo, Haifeng & Kao, Erin H. & Fung, Hung-Gay, 2015. "Shadow banking and firm financing in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 40-53.
    5. Besancenot, Damien & Vranceanu, Radu, 2014. "Experimental evidence on the ‘insidious’ illiquidity risk," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 315-323.
    6. Damien Besancenot & Radu Vranceanu, 2011. "Experimental Evidence on the 'Insidious' Illiquidity Risk," Post-Print hal-00607867, HAL.
    7. Damien Besancenot & Radu Vranceanu, 2011. "Experimental evidence on the "insidious" illiquidity risk," CEPN Working Papers halshs-00602107, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Naiditch, Claire & Vranceanu, Radu, 2011. "Remittances as a social status signaling device," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(4), pages 305-318, December.
    2. Damien Besancenot & Radu Vranceanu, 2011. "Banks risk race: A signaling explanation," CEPN Working Papers halshs-00424214, HAL.
    3. Pancotto, Livia & ap Gwilym, Owain & Williams, Jonathan, 2024. "The evolution and determinants of the non-performing loan burden in Italian banking," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    4. Benchimol, Jonathan & Fourçans, André, 2009. "Money in a DSGE framework with an application to the Euro Zone," ESSEC Working Papers DR 09005, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    5. Ben Naceur, Samy & Kandil, Magda, 2009. "The impact of capital requirements on banks' cost of intermediation and performance: The case of Egypt," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 61(1), pages 70-89.
    6. Gandjar Mustika & Enny Suryatinc & Maximilian Hall & Richard Simper, 2015. "Did Bank Indonesia cause the credit crunch of 2006–2008?," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 44(2), pages 269-298, February.
    7. Bitar, Mohammad & Pukthuanthong, Kuntara & Walker, Thomas, 2018. "The effect of capital ratios on the risk, efficiency and profitability of banks: Evidence from OECD countries," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 227-262.
    8. Giraud , Gaël & Renouard, Cécile, 2009. "Relational Capability: An Indicator of Collective Empowerment," ESSEC Working Papers DR 09012, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    9. Kjell Bjørn Nordal, 2009. "A real options approach for evaluating the implementation of a risk‐sensitive capital rule in banks," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(3), pages 132-141, August.
    10. Marie-Léandre Gomez & Isabelle Bouty, 2009. "Unpacking Knowing Integration: A Practice-based Study in Haute Cuisine," Post-Print hal-00554745, HAL.
    11. Zhou, Chen, 2013. "The impact of imposing capital requirements on systemic risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 320-329.
    12. Crifo, Patricia & Mottis, Nicolas, 2010. "SRI Analysis and Asset Management: Independent or Convergent? A Field Study on the French Market," ESSEC Working Papers DR 10006, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    13. Ernest Dautovic, 2019. "Has Regulatory Capital Made Banks Safer? Skin in the Game vs Moral Hazard," Cahiers de Recherches Economiques du Département d'économie 19.03, Université de Lausanne, Faculté des HEC, Département d’économie.
    14. Awdeh, Ali & EL-Moussawi, Chawki & Machrouh, Fouad, 2011. "The Effect of Capital Requirements on Banking Risk," MPRA Paper 119114, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Claudio Borio, 2011. "Rediscovering the Macroeconomic Roots of Financial Stability Policy: Journey, Challenges, and a Way Forward," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 3(1), pages 87-117, December.
    16. Moreira, Fernando, 2022. "Are we living in an illusion? A fresh look at the importance of bank capital in the quest for stability," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    17. Vranceanu, Radu & Sutan, Angela & Dubart, Delphine, 2012. "Trust and financial trades: Lessons from an investment game where reciprocators can hide behind probabilities," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 72-78.
    18. Ponce de Leon, Rebecca & Carter, James T. & Rosette, Ashleigh Shelby, 2024. "Sincere solidarity or performative pretense? Evaluations of organizational allyship," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    19. Christian Hott, 2022. "Leverage and Risk Taking under Moral Hazard," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 167-185, April.
    20. Damien Besancenot & Kim Huynh & Radu Vranceanu, 2011. "A Matching Model of the Academic Publication Market," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 167(4), pages 708-725, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Banking Sector; Imperfect Information; Risk Strategy; Risk/return Tradeoff; Signaling; Arbitrage risque/rendement; Information imparfaite; Secteur bancaire; Signalisation; Stratégie de risque;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

    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:hal:journl:hal-00554719. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    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 bibliographic 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.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

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

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.