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Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Vol. 53 No. 4 2018

The Effect of State Solvency on Bank Values and Credit Supply: Evidence from State Pension Cut Legislation

Lee Jeremy Cohen; Marcia Millon Cornett; Hamid Mehran; Hassan Tehranian

Abstract

We find the financial condition of states impacts bank credit supply through their municipal bond holdings. In particular, we treat sudden political and statutory actions during the 2011 union bargaining rights debates in Wisconsin and Ohio as exogenous shocks to state solvency. We show bank valuations and municipal bond spreads adjust to the announcements, and, over longer horizons, a new lending channel linked to state solvency emerges, whereby banks supply credit as municipal bond appreciations free up capital.

DOI
10.1017/s0022109018000248
Volume
53
Issue
4
Pages
1839-1870
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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