About
265
Publications
76,225
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
9,170
Citations
Introduction
I am Full Professor of Economics at EM Strasbourg Business School, University of Strasbourg. My main research interests are banking, corporate finance and political economy, with a particular focus on emerging countries. I am member of LaRGE research center of University of Strasbourg. I am regularly visiting researcher at Bank of Finland (BOFIT) since 2008.
Additional affiliations
June 2024 - June 2024
October 2013 - September 2015
Education
September 1994 - December 1998
Publications
Publications (265)
This paper examines the impact of trust in banks on financial inclusion in a cross-country framework. We use micro-level data informing on trust in banks and financial inclusion for a dataset of about 61,000 observations from 28 countries. We find evidence for the positive impact of trust in banks on financial inclusion. We find that the positive i...
This paper examines the effect of executive board gender diversity on the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and bank liquidity hoarding (LH). We focus on the Russian banking sector, which, relative to most of the world, has a high share of women on bank executive boards. Using the news‐based EPU index developed by Baker, Bloom,...
We examine the effect of regional favoritism on the access of firms to credit. Using firm-level data on a large sample of 29,000 firms covering 47 countries, we investigate the hypothesis that firms in the birth regions of national political leaders have better access to credit. Our evidence suggests that firms located in birth regions of political...
To analyze whether the occurrence of elections affects access to credit for firms, we perform an investigation using firm‐level data covering 44 developed and developing countries. The results show that elections impair access to credit. Specifically, firms have lower access to credit in election years and pre‐election years as elections exacerbate...
This paper studies the relation between gender and trust in banks. We use individual data from
the 7th wave of the World Values Survey covering 53 countries during the period 2017–2021. We
find that women trust banks more than men on average worldwide. However, there are crosscountry
differences in the gender gap in trust in banks, suggesting the i...
This paper investigates how inflation influences an individual’s trust in banks. Using individual data covering 72 countries, we find that inflation, both recent and experienced throughout life, exerts a detrimental influence on trust in banks. Even if recent inflation has a stronger impact, these results support the view that inflation has both sh...
We examine the effect of CEO gender on the relationship between economic policy uncertainty (EPU) and corporate investment. Using the newspaper-based EPU index developed by Baker, Bloom, and Davis (2016), we perform an empirical investigation on firm-level data of more than 38,000 firms from eight European countries for 2010–2019. We find evidence...
This study investigates the relationship between exposure to the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan and religiosity. We use detailed information on 19,340 Pakistani individuals, including time devoted to religious activities and the intensity of the damage generated by the earthquake, to analyze how religiosity is related to earthquake exposure. Our key f...
This paper investigates how past experience with banking crises influences an individual’s trust in banks. We combine data on banking crises for the period 1970–2014 with individual data on trust in banks for 52 countries. We find that experiencing a banking crisis diminishes a person’s trust in banks, and that length of the banking crises is negat...
This paper investigates whether foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows are higher in countries ruled by trustworthy-looking or competent-looking leaders. After collecting pictures of 276 nondemocratic leaders in office between 1975 and 2010, we use a computer-based survey to assess how these faces are spontaneously perceived by ordinary people for...
This work examines the impact of bank efficiency on the bank lending channel in China. Using a sample of 148 Chinese banks over the period 2006–2017, we investigate how the reaction of the loan supply to monetary policy actions depends on a bank's efficiency. We find limited evidence that bank efficiency hampers the effectiveness of monetary policy...
Access to credit is one of the main obstacles for the growth of firms. We test the hypothesis that democracy exerts an impact on access to credit. We perform regressions at the firm-level on a large dataset of 46,000 firms in 108 countries. We find evidence of a negative relationship between democracy and credit constraints for firms. We further es...
This paper examines the impact of bank efficiency on access to credit. We test the hypothesis that higher bank efficiency, meaning a better ability of banks to operate at lower costs, favors access to credit for firms. To this end, we perform a cross-country analysis with firm-level data on access to credit and bank-level data to compute bank effic...
We examine the effect of CEO gender on the relation between having no debt and firm performance on a sample of Italian firms. No debt is associated with higher performance for male-led firms but with lower performance for female-led firms.
Is higher bank risk-taking associated with more firm investment? Combining firm- and bank-level data, we examine the relation between bank risk and firm investment in a large sample of firms from nine European countries. We find that bank risk is positively associated with firm investment. Our finding accords with the modern theory of financial int...
This study analyzes the month‐of‐the‐year effect on lending decisions. Using data from a large US peer‐to‐peer lender, we perform regressions of loan acceptance and loan rate on month dummy variables. We find evidence of a month‐of‐the‐year effect on loan acceptance and loan pricing. December is the best month to ask for a loan, with the highest ch...
There is evidence of a gender gap in access to finance. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that corruption discourages more female than male entrepreneurs from applying for credit. We use data on access to credit and corruption at the firm level for a large dataset of firms from 68 countries worldwide. We demonstrate that female entrepreneurs ar...
Research suggests that sex-based grammatical systems in languages are associated with gender differences in economic behavior. Using cross-country data on firms, we find that gendered languages lead women entrepreneurs to be more discouraged from applying for credit than male entrepreneurs.
Is bank profitability beneficial to economic growth? While policymakers have shown major concerns for low levels of bank profitability, the influence of bank profitability on economic growth remains an open question. While it can favor economic growth by strengthening financial stability, it can also result from lower competition and as such depres...
Literature has found that women outperform men in terms of loan repayment. We can therefore question whether more gender equality in access to credit fosters financial stability. We test this hypothesis using cross-country data on financial inclusion from the World Bank's Global Findex database and bank-level data on financial stability. We perform...
A large body of literature has shown the existence of a gender gap in competitiveness and a handful of experimental works investigating the impact of age on this gap lead to inconclusive results. We propose an empirical investigation on that, which is based on survey data and complementary to experimentation. Using individual data from a very large...
We investigate whether the occurrence of elections affect access to credit for firms. We perform an investigation using firm-level data covering 44 developed and developing countries. We find that elections have a detrimental influence on access to credit: firms are more credit-constrained in election years but also in pre-election years. We explai...
This paper examines the impact of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) on wealth inequality. We investigate this question, using data for 143 countries for the period 2010–2018. We find no significant impact of the occurrence of the crisis on wealth inequality. We show limited evidence that the severity of the banking crisis affects the change in weal...
Vast evidence exists of discrimination in lending against African Americans. Does such widespread discrimination persist in peer-to-peer lending, in the absence of information about borrowers’ ethnicity? To investigate this question, we gather data from a large peer-to-peer lender that uses algorithms and no face-to-face interviews to determine loa...
This survey aims at briefly summarising key findings of the recent literature dealing with politics and banking. The interplay between banks and politics has received increasing interest in recent years following Dinc (2005) on the influence of elections on bank lending. It focusses on two questions: the influence of elections on bank behaviour, an...
We formulate the “High Liquidity Creation Hypothesis” (HLCH) that a proliferation in the core activity of bank liquidity creation increases failure probability. We test the HLCH in the context of Russian banking, where many failures occurred albeit not triggered by swings in business cycles or an exogenous shock such as a crisis. Using Berger and B...
We analyze the impact of language on risk-taking behavior of banks. Languages that grammatically distinguish between present and future events make the future feel more distant than the present and as thus favor a less future-oriented behavior (Chen, American Economic Review, 2013). Our hypothesis is that these languages lead banks to take more ris...
We study the relationship between banking crises and the level of democracy. We use an event-study method on a sample of up to 129 countries over the period 1975–2010 featuring 94 systemic banking crises. We find that banking crises are followed by an improvement in democracy and report evidence suggesting that the relation may be causal. The bulk...
We investigate the existence of calendar effect in corporate lending decisions. We show that the loan amount granted by banks significantly varies across months. We find a positive effect of quarter-end and year-end months on the loan amount. We attribute these effects to trade loading behavior, according to which banks would inflate granted loans...
This paper investigates the cyclicality of Islamic banking relative to conventional banking. It examines whether loan growth and profitability have a different sensitivity to economic growth for Islamic banks and for conventional banks. We used panel data from 525 banks covering 16 countries with dual banking systems spanning the period from 2008 t...
There is evidence of a gender gap in access to finance. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that corruption discourages more female than male entrepreneurs from applying for credit. We use data on access to credit and corruption at the firm level for a large dataset of firms from 68 countries worldwide. We demonstrate that female entrepreneurs ar...
There is evidence of a gender gap in access to finance. In this paper, we test the hypothesis that corruption discourages more female than male entrepreneurs from applying for credit. We use data on access to credit and corruption at the firm level for a large dataset of firms from 68 countries worldwide. We demonstrate that female entrepreneurs ar...
Reference to gender in language can lead individuals to draw distinctions between genders and reinforce traditional views of gender roles. To test our hypothesis that language gender marking exerts an influence on the gender gap in financial inclusion, we draw on data for 117 countries in the World Bank's Global Findex database and perform logit es...
We investigate whether lending by the dominant Russian state bank, Sberbank, contributed to Vladimir Putin’s ascent to power during the presidential elections of March2000. Our hypothesis is that Sberbank corporate loans were used as incentives for managers at private firms to mobilize employees to vote for Putin. In line with our proposed voter mo...
This paper studies how future tense marking affects the terms of bank loans. We predict that languages that grammatically mark the future affect speakers’ intertemporal preferences and thereby reduce the perception of the risks associated with loan issuance. We test this hypothesis on a sample of 977 bank loans from 17 European countries. We observ...
We investigate whether high profitability influences the occurrence of bank distress in Europe. We utilize four sets of indicators for high profitability in logit models to explain bank distress with a hand-collected dataset of European bank distresses. We find that high profitability does not reduce the occurrence of bank distress. In contrast, we...
Since political risk is greater in dictatorships than in democracies, this paper investigates the hypothesis that foreign investors scrutinize public information on dictators to assess this risk. It checks whether foreign investors use five relevant dictators’ characteristics: age, political experience, education level, education in economics, and...
A vast literature shows that China's five largest state-owned banks (the Big Five) suffer from low cost efficiency. We offer a new explanation of this situation, by decomposing overall efficiency of Chinese banks into two parts: persistent and transient efficiency. Using the model of Kumbhakar, Lien, and Hardaker (2014) based on the stochastic fron...
Using a large sample of firms from nine European countries, this study examines the relationship between bank efficiency and the cost of credit for borrowing firms. We hypothesize that bank efficiency – the ability of banks to operate at lower costs – is associated with lower loan rates and thus lower cost of credit. Combining firm-level and bank-l...
Due to an unfortunate oversight the author name Ilari Määtta has been misspelt. It should be read Ilari Määttä.
A vast literature shows that China’s five largest state-owned banks (the Big Five) suffer from low cost efficiency. We offer a new explanation of this situation, by decomposing overall efficiency of Chinese banks into two parts: persistent and transient efficiency. Using the model of Kumbhakar, Lien and Hardaker (2014) based on the stochastic front...
We study the effect of syndicated loan and bond announcements on the stock price of borrowers. No work since James (1987)on US data has compared the impact of both types of announcements on the same sample. Applying an event study methodology on a sample of companies from 17 Western European countries, we find that debt announcements tend to genera...
This research investigates the determinants of attitudes toward corruption in China using micro-level data. We use survey data on 6000 individuals from 28 provinces to estimate logit models that show how individual and provincial determinants shape attitudes toward corruption. Respondents who have higher education, belong to higher social class, li...
This paper analyses the effect of bank profitability on economic growth. While policymakers have shown major concerns for low levels of bank profitability, there are no empirical studies on the growth effects of bank profitability. To fill this gap, we investigate the impact of bank profitability on economic growth using a sample of 133 countries d...
This paper studies how future tense marking affects the terms of bank loans. We predict that languages that grammatically mark the future affect speakers’ intertemporal preferences and thereby reduce the perception of the risks associated with loan issuance. We test this hypothesis on a sample of 2,601 bank loans from 20 European countries. We obse...
The Impact of Fintech on the Structure of Banking Markets
The paper investigates how Fintech can influence the structure of banking markets. Fintech have several competitive advantages relative to traditional banks. They have lower costs thanks to the use of information technologies at the core of their business model. They can supply services with...
There has been a large expansion of foreign banks in Africa over the last two decades, with Pan-African banks playing a key role in this phenomenon. This paper questions if this development is beneficial for bank efficiency in African countries by investigating if Pan-African banks are more efficient than other types of foreign and domestic banks....
Ownership structure of banks has dramatically changed over the past two decades in African countries with privatization and foreign bank entry, including the expansion of Pan-African banks. The objective of this paper is to investigate how bank ownership influences cyclicality of lending in Africa. We are then able to assess how changes in bank own...
This paper provides original empirical evidence on the financial outcome of insolvency filings in Europe. We adopt a cross-country analysis of the determinants of recovery rates isolating three types of creditors (junior, senior, and new money claims). We investigate the structure of recoveries on a unique hand-collected sample of bankrupt firms in...
This paper investigates the cyclicality of bank liquidity creation. Since liquidity creation is a major economic function of banks, their liquidity creation behavior may amplify business cycle fluctuations. Using the methodology of Berger and Bouwman (2009) to compute liquidity creation measures, we analyze the relation between GDP growth and liqui...
This paper addresses the relation between CEO gender and bank risk. We exploit a unique dataset of 365 Polish cooperative banks, 42% of which are run by female CEOs. We find that banks headed by female CEOs are less risky: they report higher capital adequacy and equity to assets ratios. Credit risk in female-led banks is not different from male-led...
This study appraises the value created by a bond offering in China, where high levels of state-ownership and insider-ownership raise concerns in the use of the proceeds. To estimate the impact of a bond issue on the firm’s value, we apply an event-study methodology on a sample of 481 issues of 347 Chinese companies over the period 2009–2013. It tur...
Trust in banks is considered essential for an effective financial system, yet little is known about what determines trust in banks. Only a handful of single-country studies discuss the topic, so this paper aims to fill the gap by providing a cross-country analysis on the level and determinants of trust in banks. Using World Values Survey data cover...
With the large expansion of Islamic finance in the recent years, sukuk, which are the Sharia-compliant substitute to conventional bonds, are now becoming more prominent. The aim of this study is to examine the impact of sukuk issuance on firm performance. To do so, we analyze how stock market performance and operating performance are influenced by...
Despite the extensive debate on the effects of bank competition on economic welfare and growth, only a handful of single-country studies deal with the impact of bank competition on the cost of credit. We contribute to the literature by investigating the impact of bank competition on the cost of credit in a cross-country setting. Using a panel of fi...
Trust in banks is essential to financial system effectiveness. The present study examines the determinants of trust in banks in China. Using the most recent wave of the World Values Survey, which included information on trust in banks from the survey in China in 2012, we perform ordered logit estimations to investigate the potential influence of a...
The expansion of Islamic banking raises questions about its impact on financial stability. We question whether the implementation of Basel II standards influences the gap in risk between Islamic and conventional banks. We use a sample of 558 banks from 24 countries that had an Islamic banking presence between 2007 and 2013. We exploit the variation...
The recent expansion of Islamic banks raises questions on its economic implications. The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact of Islamic banking development on access to credit. We combine data from a unique hand-collected database that covers Islamic banks with firm-level data covering developing and emerging countries over the period of...
Does religiosity impact the trading of securities in financial markets? We separate two channels that could affect investor behavior, disentangling a religiosity effect from a well-being effect. Our original identification strategy compares the stock market reaction to sukuk and bond issuance during the holy month of Ramadan, allowing for a differe...
This study appraises the value created by a bond offering in China, where high levels of state ownership and insider ownership raise concerns about the use of the proceeds. To estimate the impact of a bond issue on the firm's value, we apply an event‐study methodology on a sample of 481 issues of 347 Chinese companies over the period 2009–2013. It...
This paper examines how the introduction of deposit insurance influences the relationship between bank capital and liquidity creation. As discussed by Berger and Bouwman (Rev Financ Stud 22:3779–3837, 2009), there are two competing hypotheses on this relationship which can be influenced by the presence of deposit insurance. The introduction of a de...
The objective of this paper is to examine the determinants of financial inclusion in Africa. We use the World Bank's Global Findex database on 37 African countries to perform probit estimations. We find that being a man, richer, more educated and older favor financial inclusion with a higher influence of education and income. Mobile banking is driv...
This paper examines how reserve requirements influence the transmission of monetary policy through the bank lending channel in China while also taking into account the role of bank ownership. The implementation of Chinese monetary policy is characterized by the reliance on the reserve requirements as a regular policy tool with frequent adjustments....
The aim of our research is to analyze the relation between capital and bank efficiency by considering both directions of the Granger causality for the Czech banking industry. We use an exhaustive dataset of Czech banks from 2002 to 2013. We measure the cost efficiency of banks using stochastic frontier analysis. We perform Granger-causality tests t...
This paper addresses the direction of the causal link between aid and corruption. We perform Granger-causality tests in a dynamic GMM panel framework to evaluate the sign and direction of causality between aid and corruption on a dataset of 71 developing countries over the period 1996-2009. We find no significant causal relation between aid and cor...
Sukuk, the shari’a-compliant alternative mode of financing to conventional bonds, have considerably expanded over the last decade. We analyze the stock market reaction to two key features of this instrument: sukuk type and characteristics of the shari’a scholar certifying the issue. We use the event study methodology to measure abnormal returns for...
This paper investigates the determinants for firms to choose sukuk over conventional bond. We investigate the potential impact of information asymmetries through moral hazard and adverse selection to explain why firms prefer using sukuk. We perform logit regressions of the choice of debt type to determine which characteristics lead a firm to issue...
We analyze the relation between the holding of a local mandate and parliamentary activities. Multi-mandate holding can hamper parliamentary work by reducing the time devoted to this latter activity. But it can also favor parliamentary work if activities associated with local offices allow information that is of use for parliamentary activities to b...
We investigate the influence of switching costs in banking for the three largest Eurozone countries (France, Germany, and Italy). We use Shy (2002) approach to measure switching costs on bank-level data from 2006 to 2012. We examine whether cooperative banks have different switching costs than commercial banks. We find lower switching costs for coo...