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Banks' Equity Stakes and Lending : Evidence from a Tax Reform

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Abstract

Several papers find a positive association between a bank's equity stake in a borrowing firm and lending to that firm. While such a positive cross-sectional correlation may be due to equity stakes benefiting lending, it may also be driven by endogeneity. To distinguish the two, we study a German tax reform that permitted banks to sell their equity stakes tax-free. After the reform, many banks sold their equity stakes, but did not reduce lending to the firms. Thus, our findings suggest that the prior evidence cannot be interpreted causally and that banks? equity stakes are immaterial for their lending.

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  • Daniel Foos & Bastian von Beschwitz, 2016. "Banks' Equity Stakes and Lending : Evidence from a Tax Reform," International Finance Discussion Papers 1183, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    • Handle: RePEc:fip:fedgif:1183
    DOI: 10.17016/IFDP.2016.1183
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    Cited by:

    1. Falko Fecht & José-Luis Peydró & Günseli Tümer-Alkan & Yuejuan Yu, 2021. "Banks’ equity stakes in firms: A blessing or curse in credit markets?," Economics Working Papers 1802, Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
    2. Bastian von Beschwitz, 2016. "Cash Windfalls and Acquisitions," International Finance Discussion Papers 1159, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    3. George Pennacchi, 2019. "Banks, Taxes, and Nonbank Competition," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 55(1), pages 1-30, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Relationship banking; Ownership; Monitoring;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill

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