Central banks

Time-varying risk aversion and inflation-consumption correlation in an equilibrium term structure model

Inflation risk premiums tend to be positive in an economy mainly hit by supply shocks, and negative if demand shocks dominate. Risk premiums also fluctuate with risk aversion. We shed light on this nexus in a linear-quadratic equilibrium microfinance model featuring time variation in inflation-consumption correlation and risk aversion. We obtain analytical solutions for real and nominal yield curves and for risk premiums. While changes in the inflation-consumption correlation drive nominal yields, changes in risk aversion drive real yields and act as amplifier on nominal yields.

Climate-linked bonds

Climate-linked bonds, issued by governments and supranational organizations, are pivotal in advancing towards a net-zero economy. These bonds adjust their payoffs based on climate variables such as average temperature and greenhouse gas emissions, providing investors a hedge against long-term climate risks. They also signal government commitment to climate action and incentivize stronger policies. The price differential between climate-linked bonds and nominal bonds reflects market expectations of climate risks.

Why gradual and predictable? Bank lending during the sharpest quantitative tightening ever

Exploiting the recalibration of ECB’s outstanding central bank funding in 2022, we show that a sharp reabsorption of bank liquidity induces a tightening impact on credit supply, as intended when centralbanks reduce their balance sheets. The tightening originates from the sudden relative convenience for banks accustomed to large liquidity holdings to more rapidly adapt to the new environment. Moreover, we show that the associated reduction in credit supply has real economic effects.

When banks hold back: credit and liquidity provision

Banks are reluctant to tap central bank backup liquidity facilities and use the borrowed funds for loans to the real economy. We show that excessively parsimonious borrowing and lending can arise in a stigma-free model where the banking sector has an incentive to overissue deposits. Banks don’t heed the central bank’s call for more credit to finance investment because they simply ignore the collective gains from stronger activity in their atomistic decisions. Central banks can address this market failure by disintermediating market-based finance.

Equity financing in a banking crisis: evidence from private firms

To what extent can private firms’ external equity substitute for debt financing in a banking crisis? To answer this question, I use firm-level data and firm-bank linkages to estimate the causal effect of an imported lending cut from a large German bank on firms’ capital structure and real outcomes. The estimates imply that for every 1 euro reduction in debt, private firms in Germany received 0.27 euros of external equity.

FEDS Paper: Nonparametric Time Varying IV-SVARs: Estimation and Inference

Robin Braun, George Kapetanios, Massimiliano MarcellinoThis paper studies the estimation and inference of time-varying impulse response functions in structural vector autoregressions (SVARs) identified with external instruments. Building on kernel estimators that allow for nonparametric time variation, we derive the asymptotic distributions of the relevant quantities. Our estimators are simple and computationally trivial and allow for potentially weak instruments.

FEDS Paper: Predicting College Closures and Financial Distress

Robert Kelchen, Dubravka Ritter, and Douglas WebberIn this paper, we assemble the most comprehensive dataset to date on the characteristics of colleges and universities, including dates of operation, institutional setting, student body, staff, and finance data from 2002 to 2023. We provide an extensive description of what is known and unknown about closed colleges compared with institutions that did not close.

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