Published in:Bank of Italy Temi di Discussione (Working Paper) ; No. 756
Extent:
1 Online-Ressource (59 p)
Language:
English
DOI:
10.2139/ssrn.1670563
Identifier:
Origination:
Footnote:
Nach Informationen von SSRN wurde die ursprüngliche Fassung des Dokuments April 26, 2010 erstellt
Description:
This paper analyzes the effects of the financial crisis on credit supply by using highly detailed data on bank-firm relationships in Italy after Lehman's collapse. We control for firms' unobservable characteristics, such as credit demand and borrowers' risk, by exploiting multiple lending. We find evidence of a contraction of credit supply, associated to low bank capitalization and scarce liquidity. The ability of borrowers to compensate through substitution across banks appears to have been limited. We also document that larger less-capitalized banks reallocated loans away from riskier firms, contributing to credit pro-cyclicality. Such ‘flight to quality' has not occurred for smaller less-capitalized banks. We argue that this may have reflected, among other things, evergreening practices. We provide corroborating evidence based on data on borrowers' productivity and interest rates at bank-firm level