Does Prolonged Monetary Policy Easing Increase Financial Vulnerability?

Download or read book Does Prolonged Monetary Policy Easing Increase Financial Vulnerability? written by Stephen Cecchetti and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2017-03-24 with total page 31 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using firm-level data for approximately 1,000 bank and nonbank financial institutions in 22 countries over the past 15 years we study the impact of prolonged monetary policy easing on risk-taking behavior. We find that the leverage ratio, as well as other measures of firm-level vulnerability, increases for banks and nonbanks as domestic monetary policy easing persists. Cross-border effects are also notable. We find effects of roughly similar magnitude on foreign financial sector firms when the U.S. eases policy. Results appear robust to a variety of specifications, and to be non-linear, with risk-taking behavior rising most quickly at the onset of monetary policy easing.