Bank capital and the composition of credit

Marcus Opp Milton Harris, Christian Opp - Feb 01, 2017

Working Paper No.  00021-00 We propose a general equilibrium framework to analyze the cross-sectional distribution of credit and its exposure to shocks to the financial system, such as changes to bank capital, capital requirements, and interest rates. We characterize how over- and underinvestment in different parts of the borrower distribution are linked to the capitalization of the banking sector and the distribution of borrowers' risk characteristics and bank dependence. Our model yields a parsimonious asset pricing condition for firms' cost of capital that sheds light on heterogeneity in interest rate pass-through across borrower types, as well as its dependence on the health of the banking sector.
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