IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hhs/ratioi/0069.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does Inflation and High Taxes Increase Bank Leverage?

Author

Listed:

Abstract

Does the combination of inflation and high corporate taxes explain the increase in bank leverage in the 20th century? Inflation automatically increases bank debt, while high corporate taxes hinder capital accumulation. Capital ratios therefore drop, until leverage-induced returns are sufficient to uphold them at constant levels. This theory was confronted with Swedish bank data 1870–2001. Bank capital ratios dropped when inflation and corporate tax rates were high, during WWI and in 1940–1980. The theory can explain the sinking bank capital ratios during these periods, but also their relative stability since the early 1980s. High corporate taxes and inflation were estimated to account for half of the drop in Swedish bank capital ratios since WWII.

Suggested Citation

  • Hortlund, Per, 2005. "Does Inflation and High Taxes Increase Bank Leverage?," Ratio Working Papers 69, The Ratio Institute.
    • Handle: RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0069
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.ratio.se/pdf/wp/ph_leverage.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sironi, Andrea, 2003. "Testing for Market Discipline in the European Banking Industry: Evidence from Subordinated Debt Issues," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 35(3), pages 443-472, June.
    2. Romer, Christina D, 1986. "Is the Stabilization of the Postwar Economy a Figment of the Data?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(3), pages 314-334, June.
    3. Berger, Allen N. & Herring, Richard J. & Szego, Giorgio P., 1995. "The role of capital in financial institutions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(3-4), pages 393-430, June.
    4. Merton, Robert C., 1995. "Financial innovation and the management and regulation of financial institutions," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(3-4), pages 461-481, June.
    5. Joan Farre-Mensa & Roni Michaely & Martin Schmalz, 2014. "Payout Policy," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 75-134, December.
    6. Englund, Peter, 1999. "The Swedish Banking Crisis: Roots and Consequences," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 15(3), pages 80-97, Autumn.
    7. Bohlin, Jan, 2003. "Swedish historical national accounts: The fifth generation," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 7(1), pages 73-97, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Mokatsanyane & Paul-Francois Muzindutsi & Diana Viljoen, 2017. "Credit Risk and Securitisation in the South African Banking Sector," Acta Universitatis Danubius. OEconomica, Danubius University of Galati, issue 13(2), pages 102-121, April.
    2. Klaus Schaeck & Martin Cihák, 2012. "Banking Competition and Capital Ratios," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 18(5), pages 836-866, November.
    3. Mili, Mehdi & Sahut, Jean-Michel & Trimeche, Hatem & Teulon, Frédéric, 2017. "Determinants of the capital adequacy ratio of foreign banks’ subsidiaries: The role of interbank market and regulation," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 442-453.
    4. Paweł Węgrzyn, 2022. "Determinanty finansowania obligacjami banków w Polsce," Bank i Kredyt, Narodowy Bank Polski, vol. 53(4), pages 399-420.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hortlund, Per, 2005. "Do Inflation and High Taxes Increase Bank Leverage?," SSE/EFI Working Paper Series in Economics and Finance 612, Stockholm School of Economics.
    2. Dimson, Elroy & Marsh, Paul, 1997. "Stress tests of capital requirements," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 21(11-12), pages 1515-1546, December.
    3. Haq, Mamiza & Faff, Robert & Seth, Rama & Mohanty, Sunil, 2014. "Disciplinary tools and bank risk exposure," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 37-64.
    4. Chakraborty, Suparna & Allen, Linda, 2007. "Revisiting the Level Playing Field: International Lending Responses to Divergences in Japanese Bank Capital Regulations from the Basel Accord," MPRA Paper 1805, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Martin Mayer, 1999. "Risk Reduction in the New Financial Architecture: Realities, Fallacies, and Proposals," Macroeconomics 9905003, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Grossman, Richard, 2016. "Banking Crises," CEPR Discussion Papers 11268, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Mohamed Albaity & Mohammadmahdi Toobaee, 2017. "The Risk-sensitivity of Bank Capital Requirements: The Moderating Effects of Capital Regulation and Supervisory Power," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 7(2), pages 94-102.
    8. Goetz von Peter, 2004. "Asset Prices and Banking Distress: A Macroeconomic Approach," Finance 0411034, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. Conlon, Thomas & Cotter, John & Molyneux, Philip, 2020. "Beyond common equity: The influence of secondary capital on bank insolvency risk," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 47(C).
    10. Hortlund, Per, 2005. "The Long-Term Relationship between Capital and Earnings in Banking: Sweden 1870–2001," Ratio Working Papers 63, The Ratio Institute.
    11. Isabelle Distinguin & Clovis Rugemintwari, 2011. "The Role of Market Discipline on Bank Capital Buffer: Evidence from a Sample of European Banks," Working Papers hal-00916739, HAL.
    12. Chiaramonte, Laura & Croci, Ettore & Poli, Federica, 2015. "Should we trust the Z-score? Evidence from the European Banking Industry," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 111-131.
    13. Alexei Karas & William Pyle & Koen Schoors, 2010. "How do Russian depositors discipline their banks? Evidence of a backward bending deposit supply function," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 62(1), pages 36-61, January.
    14. Van Tassel, Eric, 2011. "Information disclosure in credit markets when banks' costs are endogenous," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 490-497, February.
    15. von Peter, Goetz, 2009. "Asset prices and banking distress: A macroeconomic approach," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 298-319, September.
    16. Cummings, James R. & Guo, Yilian, 2020. "Do the Basel III capital reforms reduce the implicit subsidy of systemically important banks? Australian evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    17. Franklin Allen & Elena Carletti & Robert Marquez, 2011. "Credit Market Competition and Capital Regulation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(4), pages 983-1018.
    18. Huang-Meier, Winifred & Freeman, Mark C., 2015. "Aggregate dividends and consumption smoothing," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 324-335.
    19. repec:zbw:bofrdp:2004_010 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. McShane, Michael K. & Cox, Larry A. & Butler, Richard J., 2010. "Regulatory competition and forbearance: Evidence from the life insurance industry," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 522-532, March.
    21. Fuller, Kathleen P., 2003. "The impact of informed trading on dividend signaling: a theoretical and empirical examination," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(4), pages 385-407, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Bank leverage; Capital-asset ratio; Inflation; Corporate taxes;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • E44 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Money and Interest Rates - - - Financial Markets and the Macroeconomy
    • E52 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit - - - Monetary Policy
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • N23 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • N24 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions - - - Europe: 1913-

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hhs:ratioi:0069. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Martin Korpi (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ratiose.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.