The views presented here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of... more The views presented here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Bank for International Settlements. Restricted "We will amend our regulatory systems to ensure authorities are able to identify and take account of macro-prudential risks across the financial system" --G20 declaration on strengthening the financial system,
Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers, 2000
This paper extends the standard Diamond-Dybvig model for a general equilibrium in which depositor... more This paper extends the standard Diamond-Dybvig model for a general equilibrium in which depositors make their withdrawal decisions sequentially and banks strategically choose their contracts. There is a unique Subgame Perfect Nash Equilibrium SPNE in the decentralized economy. Bank runs can occur when depositors perceive a l o w return on bank assets. When information is imperfect, bank runs can happen even when the economy is in a good state. A representative bank can earn positive pro ts in equilibrium due to the sequential service constraint. When there are several risky projects available, the high-risk technology may b e c hosen as a socially e cient solution.
The paper investigates the characteristics of house price dynamics and the role of institutional ... more The paper investigates the characteristics of house price dynamics and the role of institutional features in nine Asia-Pacific economies during 1993-2006. On average, house prices tend to be more volatile in markets with lower supply elasticity and a more flexible business environment. At the national level, the current run-up in house prices mainly reflects adjustment to improved fundamentals rather than speculative housing bubbles. However, evidence of bubbles does exist in some market segments.
BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for... more BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topical interest and are technical in character. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS. This publication is available on the BIS website (www.bis.org).
This paper proposes that bank runs are unique equilibrium outcomes instead of self-fulfilling pro... more This paper proposes that bank runs are unique equilibrium outcomes instead of self-fulfilling prophecies. By assuming that depositors make their withdrawal decisions sequentially, the model provides an equilibrium-selection mechanism in the economy. A bank run would occur if and only if depositors perceive a low return on bank assets. Furthermore, a panic situation arises only when the market information is imperfect. A two-stage variant of the model shows that banks would deliberately offer a demand-deposit contract that is susceptive to bank runs. JEL Classification Numbers: G21, G14, C7 Keywords: bank runs, demand deposit, perfect Bayesian equilibrium BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topical interest and are technical in character. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS.
This paper develops a stochastic dynamic model to examine the impact of capital regulation on ban... more This paper develops a stochastic dynamic model to examine the impact of capital regulation on banks' financial decisions. In equilibrium, lending decisions, capital buffer and the probability of bank failure are endogenously determined. Compared to a flatrate capital rule, a risk-sensitive capital standard causes the capital requirement to be much higher for small (and riskier) banks and much lower for large (and less risky) banks. Nevertheless, changes in actual capital holdings are less pronounced due to the offsetting effect of capital buffers. Moreover, the non-binding capital constraint in equilibrium implies that banks adopt an active portfolio strategy and hence the counter-cyclical movement of risk-based capital requirements does not necessarily lead to a reinforcement of the credit cycle. In fact, the results from the calibrated model show that the impact on cyclical lending behavior differs substantially across banks. Lastly, the analysis suggests that the adoption of a more risk-sensitive capital regime can be welfare-improving from a regulator's perspective, in that it causes less distortion in loan decisions and achieves a better balance between safety and efficiency.
A structural model with stochastic volatility and jumps implies particular relationships between ... more A structural model with stochastic volatility and jumps implies particular relationships between observed equity returns and credit spreads. This paper explores such effects in the credit default swap (CDS) market. We use a novel approach to identify the realized jumps of individual equity from high frequency data. Our empirical results suggest that volatility risk alone predicts 50% of CDS spread variation, while jump risk alone forecasts 19%. After controlling for credit ratings, macroeconomic conditions, and firms' balance sheet information, we can explain 77% of the total variation. Moreover, the marginal impacts of volatility and jump measures increase dramatically from investment grade to high-yield entities. The estimated nonlinear effects of volatility and jumps are in line with the model impliedrelationships between equity returns and credit spreads.
House prices generally depend on inflation, the yield curve and bank credit, but national differe... more House prices generally depend on inflation, the yield curve and bank credit, but national differences in the mortgage markets also matter. House prices are more sensitive to short-term rates where floating rate mortgages are more widely used and more aggressive lending practices are associated with stronger feedback from prices to bank credit.
This paper proposes a model in which bank runs are closely related to the state of the business c... more This paper proposes a model in which bank runs are closely related to the state of the business cycle. The benchmark model shows that, in a market economy, there are welfare losses due to the existence of bank runs. Extensions of the model explore the welfare effects of various government policies. The results suggest that an interest-cap deposit insurance scheme is an efficient policy to prevent bank runs, while other policies, including the suspension of convertibility, a penalty on short-term deposits and full-coverage deposit insurance schemes, will all have adverse side effects.
This paper extends the approach of measuring and stress-testing the systemic risk of a banking se... more This paper extends the approach of measuring and stress-testing the systemic risk of a banking sector in Huang, Zhou, and Zhu (2009) to identifying various sources of financial instability and to allocating systemic risk to individual financial institutions. The systemic risk measure, defined as the insurance cost to protect against distressed losses in a banking system, is a risk-neutral concept of capital based on publicly available information that can be appropriately aggregated across different subsets. An application of our methodology to a portfolio of twenty-two major banks in Asia and the Pacific illustrates the dynamics of the spillover effects of the global financial crisis to the region. The increase in the perceived systemic risk, particularly after the failure of Lehman Brothers, was mainly driven by the heightened risk aversion and the squeezed liquidity. The analysis on the marginal contribution of individual banks to the systemic risk suggests that "too-big-to-fail" is a valid concern from a macroprudential perspective of bank regulation.
Few areas of monetary economics have been studied as extensively as the transmission mechanism. T... more Few areas of monetary economics have been studied as extensively as the transmission mechanism. The literature on this topic has evolved substantially over the years, following the waxing and waning of conceptual frameworks and the changing characteristics of the financial system. In this paper, taking as a starting point a brief overview of the extant work on the interaction between capital regulation, the business cycle and the transmission mechanism, we offer some broader reflections on the characteristics of the transmission mechanism in light of the evolution of the financial system. We argue that insufficient attention has so far been paid to the link between monetary policy and the perception and pricing of risk by economic agents-what might be termed the "risk-taking channel" of monetary policy. We develop the concept, compare it with current views of the transmission mechanism, explore its mutually reinforcing link with "liquidity" and analyse its interaction with monetary policy reaction functions. We argue that changes in the financial system and prudential regulation may have increased the importance of the risk-taking channel and that prevailing macroeconomic paradigms and associated models are not well suited to capturing it, thereby also reducing their effectiveness as guides to monetary policy.
We adopt a systemic risk indicator measured by the price of insurance against systemic financial ... more We adopt a systemic risk indicator measured by the price of insurance against systemic financial distress and assess individual banks' marginal contributions to the systemic risk. The methodology is applied using publicly available data to the 19 bank holding companies covered by the U.S. Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP), with the systemic risk indicator peaking around $1.1 trillion in March 2009. Our systemic risk contribution measure shows interesting similarity to and divergence from the SCAP expected loss measure. In general, we find that a bank's contribution to the systemic risk is roughly linear in its default probability but highly nonlinear with respect to institution size and asset correlation.
This paper compares the pricing of credit risk in the bond market and the fast-growing credit def... more This paper compares the pricing of credit risk in the bond market and the fast-growing credit default swap (CDS) market. The empirical findings confirm the theoretical prediction that bond spreads and CDS spreads move together in the long run. Nevertheless, in the short run this relationship does not always hold. The deviation is largely due to different responses of the two markets to changes in credit conditions. By looking into the dynamic linkages between the two spreads, I find that the CDS market often moves ahead of the bond market in price adjustment, particularly for US entities. Liquidity also matters for their role in price discovery. Surprisingly, the terms of CDS contracts and the short-sale restriction in the cash market only have a very small impact. BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS.
BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for... more BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topical interest and are technical in character. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS.
BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for... more BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topical interest and are technical in character. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS.
Contractual terms related to the definition of trigger events and deliverable obligations on sing... more Contractual terms related to the definition of trigger events and deliverable obligations on single-name CDSs are priced into CDS spreads. Pricing of the differences in contract terms appears to have generally converged over time, although there still seems to be evidence of a degree of regional fragmentation.
Emerging Asia has witnessed rapid growth of private housing and market-based housing finance in t... more Emerging Asia has witnessed rapid growth of private housing and market-based housing finance in the past decade; nevertheless, market development has been uneven across countries. There is evidence that, in those economies with more flexible housing finance markets, house prices are more responsive to overall changes in market conditions, particularly equity price movements.
The views presented here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of... more The views presented here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Bank for International Settlements. Restricted "We will amend our regulatory systems to ensure authorities are able to identify and take account of macro-prudential risks across the financial system" --G20 declaration on strengthening the financial system,
Econometric Society World Congress 2000 Contributed Papers, 2000
This paper extends the standard Diamond-Dybvig model for a general equilibrium in which depositor... more This paper extends the standard Diamond-Dybvig model for a general equilibrium in which depositors make their withdrawal decisions sequentially and banks strategically choose their contracts. There is a unique Subgame Perfect Nash Equilibrium SPNE in the decentralized economy. Bank runs can occur when depositors perceive a l o w return on bank assets. When information is imperfect, bank runs can happen even when the economy is in a good state. A representative bank can earn positive pro ts in equilibrium due to the sequential service constraint. When there are several risky projects available, the high-risk technology may b e c hosen as a socially e cient solution.
The paper investigates the characteristics of house price dynamics and the role of institutional ... more The paper investigates the characteristics of house price dynamics and the role of institutional features in nine Asia-Pacific economies during 1993-2006. On average, house prices tend to be more volatile in markets with lower supply elasticity and a more flexible business environment. At the national level, the current run-up in house prices mainly reflects adjustment to improved fundamentals rather than speculative housing bubbles. However, evidence of bubbles does exist in some market segments.
BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for... more BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topical interest and are technical in character. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS. This publication is available on the BIS website (www.bis.org).
This paper proposes that bank runs are unique equilibrium outcomes instead of self-fulfilling pro... more This paper proposes that bank runs are unique equilibrium outcomes instead of self-fulfilling prophecies. By assuming that depositors make their withdrawal decisions sequentially, the model provides an equilibrium-selection mechanism in the economy. A bank run would occur if and only if depositors perceive a low return on bank assets. Furthermore, a panic situation arises only when the market information is imperfect. A two-stage variant of the model shows that banks would deliberately offer a demand-deposit contract that is susceptive to bank runs. JEL Classification Numbers: G21, G14, C7 Keywords: bank runs, demand deposit, perfect Bayesian equilibrium BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topical interest and are technical in character. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS.
This paper develops a stochastic dynamic model to examine the impact of capital regulation on ban... more This paper develops a stochastic dynamic model to examine the impact of capital regulation on banks' financial decisions. In equilibrium, lending decisions, capital buffer and the probability of bank failure are endogenously determined. Compared to a flatrate capital rule, a risk-sensitive capital standard causes the capital requirement to be much higher for small (and riskier) banks and much lower for large (and less risky) banks. Nevertheless, changes in actual capital holdings are less pronounced due to the offsetting effect of capital buffers. Moreover, the non-binding capital constraint in equilibrium implies that banks adopt an active portfolio strategy and hence the counter-cyclical movement of risk-based capital requirements does not necessarily lead to a reinforcement of the credit cycle. In fact, the results from the calibrated model show that the impact on cyclical lending behavior differs substantially across banks. Lastly, the analysis suggests that the adoption of a more risk-sensitive capital regime can be welfare-improving from a regulator's perspective, in that it causes less distortion in loan decisions and achieves a better balance between safety and efficiency.
A structural model with stochastic volatility and jumps implies particular relationships between ... more A structural model with stochastic volatility and jumps implies particular relationships between observed equity returns and credit spreads. This paper explores such effects in the credit default swap (CDS) market. We use a novel approach to identify the realized jumps of individual equity from high frequency data. Our empirical results suggest that volatility risk alone predicts 50% of CDS spread variation, while jump risk alone forecasts 19%. After controlling for credit ratings, macroeconomic conditions, and firms' balance sheet information, we can explain 77% of the total variation. Moreover, the marginal impacts of volatility and jump measures increase dramatically from investment grade to high-yield entities. The estimated nonlinear effects of volatility and jumps are in line with the model impliedrelationships between equity returns and credit spreads.
House prices generally depend on inflation, the yield curve and bank credit, but national differe... more House prices generally depend on inflation, the yield curve and bank credit, but national differences in the mortgage markets also matter. House prices are more sensitive to short-term rates where floating rate mortgages are more widely used and more aggressive lending practices are associated with stronger feedback from prices to bank credit.
This paper proposes a model in which bank runs are closely related to the state of the business c... more This paper proposes a model in which bank runs are closely related to the state of the business cycle. The benchmark model shows that, in a market economy, there are welfare losses due to the existence of bank runs. Extensions of the model explore the welfare effects of various government policies. The results suggest that an interest-cap deposit insurance scheme is an efficient policy to prevent bank runs, while other policies, including the suspension of convertibility, a penalty on short-term deposits and full-coverage deposit insurance schemes, will all have adverse side effects.
This paper extends the approach of measuring and stress-testing the systemic risk of a banking se... more This paper extends the approach of measuring and stress-testing the systemic risk of a banking sector in Huang, Zhou, and Zhu (2009) to identifying various sources of financial instability and to allocating systemic risk to individual financial institutions. The systemic risk measure, defined as the insurance cost to protect against distressed losses in a banking system, is a risk-neutral concept of capital based on publicly available information that can be appropriately aggregated across different subsets. An application of our methodology to a portfolio of twenty-two major banks in Asia and the Pacific illustrates the dynamics of the spillover effects of the global financial crisis to the region. The increase in the perceived systemic risk, particularly after the failure of Lehman Brothers, was mainly driven by the heightened risk aversion and the squeezed liquidity. The analysis on the marginal contribution of individual banks to the systemic risk suggests that "too-big-to-fail" is a valid concern from a macroprudential perspective of bank regulation.
Few areas of monetary economics have been studied as extensively as the transmission mechanism. T... more Few areas of monetary economics have been studied as extensively as the transmission mechanism. The literature on this topic has evolved substantially over the years, following the waxing and waning of conceptual frameworks and the changing characteristics of the financial system. In this paper, taking as a starting point a brief overview of the extant work on the interaction between capital regulation, the business cycle and the transmission mechanism, we offer some broader reflections on the characteristics of the transmission mechanism in light of the evolution of the financial system. We argue that insufficient attention has so far been paid to the link between monetary policy and the perception and pricing of risk by economic agents-what might be termed the "risk-taking channel" of monetary policy. We develop the concept, compare it with current views of the transmission mechanism, explore its mutually reinforcing link with "liquidity" and analyse its interaction with monetary policy reaction functions. We argue that changes in the financial system and prudential regulation may have increased the importance of the risk-taking channel and that prevailing macroeconomic paradigms and associated models are not well suited to capturing it, thereby also reducing their effectiveness as guides to monetary policy.
We adopt a systemic risk indicator measured by the price of insurance against systemic financial ... more We adopt a systemic risk indicator measured by the price of insurance against systemic financial distress and assess individual banks' marginal contributions to the systemic risk. The methodology is applied using publicly available data to the 19 bank holding companies covered by the U.S. Supervisory Capital Assessment Program (SCAP), with the systemic risk indicator peaking around $1.1 trillion in March 2009. Our systemic risk contribution measure shows interesting similarity to and divergence from the SCAP expected loss measure. In general, we find that a bank's contribution to the systemic risk is roughly linear in its default probability but highly nonlinear with respect to institution size and asset correlation.
This paper compares the pricing of credit risk in the bond market and the fast-growing credit def... more This paper compares the pricing of credit risk in the bond market and the fast-growing credit default swap (CDS) market. The empirical findings confirm the theoretical prediction that bond spreads and CDS spreads move together in the long run. Nevertheless, in the short run this relationship does not always hold. The deviation is largely due to different responses of the two markets to changes in credit conditions. By looking into the dynamic linkages between the two spreads, I find that the CDS market often moves ahead of the bond market in price adjustment, particularly for US entities. Liquidity also matters for their role in price discovery. Surprisingly, the terms of CDS contracts and the short-sale restriction in the cash market only have a very small impact. BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS.
BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for... more BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topical interest and are technical in character. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS.
BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for... more BIS Working Papers are written by members of the Monetary and Economic Department of the Bank for International Settlements, and from time to time by other economists, and are published by the Bank. The papers are on subjects of topical interest and are technical in character. The views expressed in them are those of their authors and not necessarily the views of the BIS.
Contractual terms related to the definition of trigger events and deliverable obligations on sing... more Contractual terms related to the definition of trigger events and deliverable obligations on single-name CDSs are priced into CDS spreads. Pricing of the differences in contract terms appears to have generally converged over time, although there still seems to be evidence of a degree of regional fragmentation.
Emerging Asia has witnessed rapid growth of private housing and market-based housing finance in t... more Emerging Asia has witnessed rapid growth of private housing and market-based housing finance in the past decade; nevertheless, market development has been uneven across countries. There is evidence that, in those economies with more flexible housing finance markets, house prices are more responsive to overall changes in market conditions, particularly equity price movements.
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Papers by Haibin Zhu