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Journal of Financial Stability Vol. 6 No. 3 2010

Banks without parachutes: Competitive effects of government bail-out policies

Hendrik Hakenes1,2; Isabel Schnabel3,4,2

1 Leibniz University Hannover · 2 Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics · 3 Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz · 4 Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract

We analyze the competitive effects of government bail-out policies in two models with different degrees of transparency in the banking sector. Our main result is that bail-outs lead to higher risk-taking among the protected bank’s competitors, independently of transparency. The reason is that the prospect of a bail-out induces the protected bank to expand, which intensifies competition in the deposit market, depresses other banks’ margins, and thereby increases risk-taking incentives. Contrary to conventional wisdom, protected banks may take lower risks when transparency in the banking sector is low and the deposit supply is sufficiently elastic.

DOI
10.1016/j.jfs.2009.05.006
Volume
6
Issue
3
Pages
156-168
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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