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Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis Vol. 54 No. 1 2019

Bank Lending and the European Sovereign Debt Crisis

Filippo De Marco

Abstract

I investigate whether bank exposures to sovereign debt during the European debt crisis affected the real economy. I show that a shock to the marked-to-market (MTM) value of bank exposures to sovereign debt led to credit tightening in 2010–2011 that had negative real effects on small and young firms. Because banks do not usually mark their holdings of sovereign bonds to market, I explore the transmission channels of the unrealized losses on credit supply. I show that a shock to MTM exposures reduced short-term bank funding from U.S. money market funds rather than affecting equity or working through alternative channels.

DOI
10.1017/s0022109018000510
Volume
54
Issue
1
Pages
155-182
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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