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Bank Risk-Taking and Competition Revisited

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  • Mr. Gianni De Nicolo
  • John H. Boyd

Abstract

This study reinvestigates the theoretical relationship between competition in banking and banks' exposure to risk of failure. There is a large existing literature that concludes that when banks are confronted with increased competition, they rationally choose more risky portfolios. We briefly review this literature and argue that it has had a significant influence on regulators and central bankers, causing them to take a less favorable view of competition and encouraging anti-competitive consolidation as a response to banking instability. We then show that existing theoretical analyses of this topic are fragile, since they do not detect two fundamental risk-incentive mechanisms that operate in exactly the opposite direction, causing banks to aquire more risk per portfolios as their markets become more concentrated. We argue that these mechanisms should be essential ingredients of models of bank competition.

Suggested Citation

  • Mr. Gianni De Nicolo & John H. Boyd, 2003. "Bank Risk-Taking and Competition Revisited," IMF Working Papers 2003/114, International Monetary Fund.
  • Handle: RePEc:imf:imfwpa:2003/114
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Lawrence J. White & W. Scott Frame, 2004. "Emerging Competition and Risk-Taking Incentives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," Working Papers 04-02, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    2. Soedarmono, Wahyoe & Machrouh, Fouad & Tarazi, Amine, 2011. "Bank market power, economic growth and financial stability: Evidence from Asian banks," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(6), pages 460-470.
    3. Hakenes, Hendrik & Schnabel, Isabel, 2010. "Banks without parachutes: Competitive effects of government bail-out policies," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 156-168, September.
    4. Fiordelisi, Franco & Marques-Ibanez, David & Molyneux, Phil, 2011. "Efficiency and risk in European banking," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 1315-1326, May.
    5. Mr. Udaibir S Das & Mr. Marc G Quintyn & Miss Kina Chenard, 2004. "Does Regulatory Governance Matter for Financial System Stability? An Empirical Analysis," IMF Working Papers 2004/089, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Marcello Bofondi & Giorgio Gobbi, 2004. "Bad Loans and Entry into Local Credit Markets," Temi di discussione (Economic working papers) 509, Bank of Italy, Economic Research and International Relations Area.
    7. de la Torre, Augusto & Ize, Alain, 2013. "The foundations of macroprudential regulation : a conceptual roadmap," Policy Research Working Paper Series 6575, The World Bank.
    8. Jens Forssbæck & Choudhry Tanveer Shehzad, 2015. "The Conditional Effects of Market Power on Bank Risk—Cross-Country Evidence," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 19(5), pages 1997-2038.
    9. Noy, Ilan, 2004. "Financial liberalization, prudential supervision, and the onset of banking crises," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 341-359, September.
    10. Damjanovic, Vladislav, 2013. "Endogenous risk in monopolistic competition," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 120(2), pages 220-223.
    11. Wilcox, James A. & Yasuda, Yukihiro, 2019. "Government guarantees of loans to small businesses: Effects on banks’ risk-taking and non-guaranteed lending," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 45-57.
    12. Bank for International Settlements, 2012. "Operationalising the selection and application of macroprudential instruments," CGFS Papers, Bank for International Settlements, number 48, december.
    13. Marcella Lucchetta & Mr. Gianni De Nicolo, 2011. "Bank Competition and Financial Stability: A General Equilibrium Exposition," IMF Working Papers 2011/295, International Monetary Fund.
    14. Gagari Chakrabarti, 2022. "Openness and Potential Fragility of the Global Banking System," India Studies in Business and Economics, in: Supravat Bagli & Gagari Chakrabarti & Prithviraj Guha (ed.), Persistent and Emerging Challenges to Development, chapter 0, pages 351-370, Springer.
    15. Tsionas, Mike G. & Izzeldin, Marwan, 2018. "Smooth approximations to monotone concave functions in production analysis: An alternative to nonparametric concave least squares," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 271(3), pages 797-807.
    16. Petr Teply & Milan Matejašák, 2007. "Regulation of Bank Capital and Behavior of Banks: Assessing the US and the EU-15 Region Banks in the 2000-2005 Period," Working Papers IES 2007/23, Charles University Prague, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies, revised Aug 2007.
    17. Franco Fiordelisi & David Marques & Phil Molyneux, 2009. "Efficiency and Risk-Taking in European Banking," Working Papers 09004, Bangor Business School, Prifysgol Bangor University (Cymru / Wales).

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