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Selection, Socialization, and Risk Preferences in the Finance Industry: Longitudinal Evidence for German Finance Professionals

The financial sector plays a crucial role in society. Consequently, prior research has examined the preferences of professionals working in finance. However, these studies have tended to be cross-sectional and have neglected the dynamic roles played by (self-)selection and socialization. This paper uses longitudinal data from Germany to examine how individuals’ financial risk preferences affect their ...

Non-Additivity of Subjective Expectations over Different Time Intervals

We examine the additivity of stock-market expectations over different time intervals. When asked about a ten-year interval, survey respondents expect a stock-price change that is not equal to, but closer to zero than, the sum of their expectations over two shorter time intervals that cover the same ten years. Such sub-additivity is irrational in that it cannot stem from aggregating short-term expectations. ...

How Shocks Affect Stock Market Participation

While there is a broad consensus in the literature that stock ownership is associated with individual characteristics, such as wealth, income, risk preferences, and financial literacy, less is known about the dynamics of stock market participation (SMP). Major fluctuations in SMP are oftentimes related to political events, economic shocks, and technological disruptions. We discuss the literature that ...

Impact of the 2022 Interest-Rate Shock on Cooperative Banks in Germany: A Case Study

Zwischen Juli und Dezember erhöhte die Europäische Zentralbank (EZB) ihren Leitzins äußerst kräftig um 250 Basispunkte. Dieser Zinsschock stellte für die deutschen Genossenschaftsbanken wie auch für viele andere Kreditinstitute eine große Herausforderung dar. Infolgedessen mussten die Genossenschaftsbanken deutliche Ertragseinbußen hinnehmen. Diese äußerten sich überwiegend in einem hohen Bewertungsaufwand ...

Chinese Loans to African Countries Differ from Western Development Loans

Over the past 20 years, China has granted a conspicuous amount of loans to African countries. New loan data show that compared to Western multilateral loans, Chinese loans have relatively high interest rates and shorter maturities, tend to be highly collateralized, and are volatile over time. Thus, Western loans are generally more likely to be in the economic interest of the borrowing country. Furthermore, ...

Safe Asset Scarcity and Re-use in the European Repo Market

We construct the first measure of collateral re-use at the bank and bond level for the European repo market using a regulatory transaction dataset. We show that banks materially increase the rate of re-use in response to tightened asset scarcity induced by the Eurosystem’s asset purchase program. We find that dealers accommodate clients’ demand for safe assets rather than liquidity and profit from ...

The Signalling Channel of Negative Interest Rates

Negative policy rates can convince markets that deposit rates will remain lower-for-longer, even when current deposit rates are constrained by zero. This is the signalling channel of negative interest rates. We analyse the optimality and effectiveness of negative rates in the context of this novel transmission channel. In a stylized model, we prove two necessary conditions for optimality: time-consistency ...

Collaborative Investor Engagement with Policymakers: Changing the Rules of the Game?

Although a growing number of investors are engaging with sovereign entities on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, little academic research investigates this new form of investor activism. Applying universal ownership theory and drawing on eleven case studies of policy engagement, this article analyzes what drives institutional investors to engage with government entities and what challenges ...

When Credit Turns Political: Evidence from the Spanish Financial Crisis

This paper provides causal evidence on the effect of credit crunches on political polarization. We combine data on bank-firm connections and electoral outcomes at the city-level during the 2008-2014 Spanish Financial Crisis. First, we show that firms in a relationship with weak banks experience a reduction in their loan supply and employment growth. Next, we estimate the effects of unemployment on ...

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