We explore whether corporate tax enforcement can affect bank lending. Specifically, we hypothesize that tax enforcement efforts aimed at small and midsized enterprises (SME) can improve their information environments, which in turn could lead to increased bank commercial lending. Exploiting the...

The recent switch from the incurred credit loss model to the expected credit loss model is an important change to bank financial reporting systems around the world. The expected credit loss model requires banks to monitor their borrowers closely for more timely recognition of loan losses. We...

How can tax policy improve financial stability? Recent studies suggest large stability gains from eliminating the debt bias in corporate taxation. It is well known that this reform reduces bank leverage. This paper analyzes a novel, complementary channel: risk taking. We model banks’ portfolio...

In the aftermath of the recent financial crisis, a variety of taxes on financial institutions have been proposed or enacted. These taxes' justifications range from punishing those deemed to have caused or unduly profited from the crisis, to addressing the budgetary costs of the crisis, to better...

This paper analyzes the risks that contemporary banks experience. In particular, the trends that the financial sector has undergone during the last few decades with the introduction of derivatives, universalization of the United States banking industry, and globalization of several operations...

This paper briefly discusses the impact of regulation on the financial industry, and more specifically the development and expectations of Basel III guidelines. Elements of the recent global financial crisis provide the background for such discussion, and the evolution of the work conducted by...

The current research on credit risk is primarily focused on modelling default probabilities. Recovery rates are often treated as an afterthought; they are modelled independently, in many cases they are even assumed to be constant. This despite their pronounced effect on the tail of the loss...

Credit score cutoff rules result in very similar potential borrowers being treated differently by mortgage lenders. Recent research has used variation induced by these rules to investigate the connection between securitization and lender moral hazard in the recent financial crisis. However, the...

Mortgage originators use credit score cutoff rules to determine how carefully to screen loan applicants. Recent research has hypothesized that these cutoff rules result from a securitization rule of thumb. Under this theory, an observed jump in defaults at the cutoff would imply that...

We study the effects of a bank’s engagement in trading. Traditional banking is relationship-based: not scalable, long-term oriented, with high implicit capital, and low risk (thanks to the law of large numbers). Trading is transactions-based: scalable, short-term, capital constrained, and with...