Not logged in.

Contribution Details

Type Journal Article
Scope Discipline-based scholarship
Title The invisible hand of the government: moral suasion during the European sovereign debt crisis
Organization Unit
Authors
  • Steven Ongena
  • Alexander Popov
  • Neeltje van Horen
Item Subtype Original Work
Refereed Yes
Status Published in final form
Language
  • English
Journal Title American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics
Publisher American Economic Association
Geographical Reach international
ISSN 1945-7715
Volume 11
Number 4
Page Range 346 - 379
Date 2019
Abstract Text Using proprietary data on banks' monthly securities holdings, we find that during the European sovereign debt crisis, domestic banks in fiscally stressed countries were considerably more likely than foreign banks to increase their holdings of domestic sovereign bonds in months with relatively high domestic sovereign bond issuance. This effect is stronger for state-owned banks and for banks with low initial holdings of domestic sovereign bonds, and it is not fuelled by Central Bank liquidity provision. Our results point to a "moral suasion" mechanism, and they are not driven by concurrent risk-shifting, carry-trading, regulatory compliance, or shocks to investment opportunities.
Free access at DOI
Official URL https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/mac.20160377
Related URLs
Digital Object Identifier 10.1257/mac.20160377
Other Identification Number merlin-id:17148
PDF File Download from ZORA
Export BibTeX
EP3 XML (ZORA)