Steven Ongena
Biographic Data
| ID | 1165971 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven Ongena |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven |
| FAMILY NAME | Ongena |
| SIGNATURE | ONGENA S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Zurich |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8381-0062 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1970 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Climate‐Related Financial Policy and Systemic Risk
We examine the relationship between climate‐related financial policies (CRFPs) and banks' systemic risk. Using a sample of 458 banks in 47 countries over the period 2000–2020, we document that more stringent CRFPs are detrimental to overall financial stability and contribute to increased system‐wide distress, where excessive aggregate regulatory constraints may impose burdens on banks. Decomposing systemic risk shows that stricter CRFPs raise ban…
From Crisis to War
What is the link between cyclical systemic risk and bank solvency, and can we make it work for policymakers? This paper develops a framework for high‐frequency monitoring of banking system health based on the link between the degree of accumulated vulnerabilities and bank solvency. Using local projection methods with a distributional focus, we show that this link is nonlinear, with substantially stronger effects in the lower tail of the profitabi…
Monetary Policy, Held-to-Maturity Securities, and Uninsured Deposit Withdrawals
This paper shows that an increase in the Federal funds rate is associated with an increase in banks' unrealized losses due to their held-to-maturity (HTM) portfolio. This increase exposes banks to large uninsured deposit withdrawals as depositors seek a flight to safety. This relationship is present mainly for banks with investment portfolio losses and those with a lower capital ratio. Our results highlight the importance of banks' HTM securities…
Introduction to Jebo special issue on wars, economic sanctions, economic behaviors, and institutions
The response of household debt to Covid-19 using a neural networks VAR in OECD
Taxing banks leverage and syndicated lending
Between 2010 and 2012 and with bank stability as the ultimate target, five European countries implemented a tax levy on banks’ liabilities thereby decreasing the cost of equity relative to the cost of debt. Using a difference-in-differences approach we assess the impact of this tax levy on banks’ participation in the syndicated loan market. We further investigate the impact of the tax levy along bank size and capital structure. We find that banks…
Close competitors? Bilateral bank competition and spatial variation in firms’ access to credit
We interviewed 379 bank CEOs in 20 emerging markets to identify their banks’ main competitors. We show that banks are more likely to identify another bank as a main competitor in small-business lending when both banks are foreign owned or relationship oriented; when there exists a large spatial overlap in their branch networks and when the potential competitor has fewer hierarchical layers. We then construct a novel bilateral competition measure …
Fiscal transfers, local government, and entrepreneurship
Can local government spending spur entrepreneurial activity? To answer this question, we study a setting where, around multiple pre‐determined and non‐manipulable thresholds, municipalities with lower tax revenues receive direct and different monetary grants from the national budget. Employing a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we find a positive impact of fiscal transfers on the number of firms, especially sole proprietorships and small fi…
Bank capital buffer releases, public guarantee programs, and dividend bans in Covid-19 Europe
We analyse the recent policy decisions made by the European Central Bank and the national authorities related to capital and shareholders’ remuneration aimed at promoting banking credit supply in COVID-19-afflicted economies. We forecast the impact of the regulatory decisions based on the empirical literature and discuss the factors that reduce the banks’ incentives to expand their loan portfolios. We argue that the introduction of the dividend b…
Working with women, do men get all the credit
Do governments and banks see eye to eye about the environment? Maybe not yet, but can they
status: Published
Competition in the Banking Sector
This chapter merges recent findings from the empirical banking literature with conventional insights from work on banking competition and regulation. It first reviews and assesses the different methodological approaches pursued to address banking competition. While market structure indicators are easily computable, they may not be overly informative about the competitive conditions in banking markets. The literature now focuses on “non-market str…
Banking Sector Deregulation, Bank–Firm Relationships and Corporate Leverage
© 2018 Royal Economic Society (Registered Charity No. 231508). We study the effects of the 1971 deregulation of UK banking on firms' financial and investment policies. The deregulation was a turning point in the evolution of firm-bank relationships during the twentieth century. Indeed, for more than 80 years prior to deregulation, most firms had had a relationship with only one bank: this was no longer the case from 1971 on. Deregulation and inte…
Household wealth inequality, entrepreneurs’ financial constraints, and the great recession
We empirically test if household wealth inequality affects borrowing constraints of young entrepreneurs. We construct a measure of wealth inequality at the US county level based on the distribution of financial rents in 2004. We find that in more unequal areas, entrepreneurs are less likely to apply for a loan fearing that their applications will be turned down and they use more of their own funds to finance their ventures. In more unequal areas,…
Macroprudential Policy, Countercyclical Bank Capital Buffers, and Credit Supply
To study the impact of macroprudential policy on credit supply cycles and real effects, we analyze dynamic provisioning. Introduced in Spain in 2000, revised four times, and tested in its countercyclicality during the crisis, it affected banks differentially. We find that dynamic provisioning smooths credit supply cycles and, in bad times, supports firm performance. A 1 percentage point increase in capital buffers extends credit to firms by 9 per…
Essays in Monetary Economics
Essays in Monetary Economics Get access Essays in Monetary Economics. By Harry G. Johnson. 2nd ed. with new Introduction. London: Allen & Unwin. 1969. 332 pp. Bibliog. Index. (Unwin University Books, 52.) 25s. International Affairs, Volume 46, Issue 4, October 1970, Page 780, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/46.4.780b Published: 01 October 1970
Macroprudential Policy, Countercyclical Bank Capital Buffers, and Credit Supply
To study the impact of macroprudential policy on credit supply cycles and real effects, we analyze dynamic provisioning. Introduced in Spain in 2000, revised four times, and tested in its countercyclicality during the crisis, it affected banks differentially. We find that dynamic provisioning smooths credit supply cycles and, in bad times, supports firm performance. A 1 percentage point increase in capital buffers extends credit to firms by 9 per…
Banking Sector Deregulation, Bank–Firm Relationships and Corporate Leverage
© 2018 Royal Economic Society (Registered Charity No. 231508). We study the effects of the 1971 deregulation of UK banking on firms' financial and investment policies. The deregulation was a turning point in the evolution of firm-bank relationships during the twentieth century. Indeed, for more than 80 years prior to deregulation, most firms had had a relationship with only one bank: this was no longer the case from 1971 on. Deregulation and inte…
Essays in Monetary Economics
Essays in Monetary Economics Get access Essays in Monetary Economics. By Harry G. Johnson. 2nd ed. with new Introduction. London: Allen & Unwin. 1969. 332 pp. Bibliog. Index. (Unwin University Books, 52.) 25s. International Affairs, Volume 46, Issue 4, October 1970, Page 780, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/46.4.780b Published: 01 October 1970
Close competitors? Bilateral bank competition and spatial variation in firms’ access to credit
We interviewed 379 bank CEOs in 20 emerging markets to identify their banks’ main competitors. We show that banks are more likely to identify another bank as a main competitor in small-business lending when both banks are foreign owned or relationship oriented; when there exists a large spatial overlap in their branch networks and when the potential competitor has fewer hierarchical layers. We then construct a novel bilateral competition measure …
Essays in Monetary Economics
Essays in Monetary Economics Get access Essays in Monetary Economics. By Harry G. Johnson. 2nd ed. with new Introduction. London: Allen & Unwin. 1969. 332 pp. Bibliog. Index. (Unwin University Books, 52.) 25s. International Affairs, Volume 46, Issue 4, October 1970, Page 780, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/46.4.780b Published: 01 October 1970
Macroprudential Policy, Countercyclical Bank Capital Buffers, and Credit Supply
To study the impact of macroprudential policy on credit supply cycles and real effects, we analyze dynamic provisioning. Introduced in Spain in 2000, revised four times, and tested in its countercyclicality during the crisis, it affected banks differentially. We find that dynamic provisioning smooths credit supply cycles and, in bad times, supports firm performance. A 1 percentage point increase in capital buffers extends credit to firms by 9 per…
Household wealth inequality, entrepreneurs’ financial constraints, and the great recession
We empirically test if household wealth inequality affects borrowing constraints of young entrepreneurs. We construct a measure of wealth inequality at the US county level based on the distribution of financial rents in 2004. We find that in more unequal areas, entrepreneurs are less likely to apply for a loan fearing that their applications will be turned down and they use more of their own funds to finance their ventures. In more unequal areas,…
Competition in the Banking Sector
This chapter merges recent findings from the empirical banking literature with conventional insights from work on banking competition and regulation. It first reviews and assesses the different methodological approaches pursued to address banking competition. While market structure indicators are easily computable, they may not be overly informative about the competitive conditions in banking markets. The literature now focuses on “non-market str…
Banking Sector Deregulation, Bank–Firm Relationships and Corporate Leverage
© 2018 Royal Economic Society (Registered Charity No. 231508). We study the effects of the 1971 deregulation of UK banking on firms' financial and investment policies. The deregulation was a turning point in the evolution of firm-bank relationships during the twentieth century. Indeed, for more than 80 years prior to deregulation, most firms had had a relationship with only one bank: this was no longer the case from 1971 on. Deregulation and inte…
Do governments and banks see eye to eye about the environment? Maybe not yet, but can they
status: Published
Bank capital buffer releases, public guarantee programs, and dividend bans in Covid-19 Europe
We analyse the recent policy decisions made by the European Central Bank and the national authorities related to capital and shareholders’ remuneration aimed at promoting banking credit supply in COVID-19-afflicted economies. We forecast the impact of the regulatory decisions based on the empirical literature and discuss the factors that reduce the banks’ incentives to expand their loan portfolios. We argue that the introduction of the dividend b…
Working with women, do men get all the credit
The response of household debt to Covid-19 using a neural networks VAR in OECD
Taxing banks leverage and syndicated lending
Between 2010 and 2012 and with bank stability as the ultimate target, five European countries implemented a tax levy on banks’ liabilities thereby decreasing the cost of equity relative to the cost of debt. Using a difference-in-differences approach we assess the impact of this tax levy on banks’ participation in the syndicated loan market. We further investigate the impact of the tax levy along bank size and capital structure. We find that banks…
Close competitors? Bilateral bank competition and spatial variation in firms’ access to credit
We interviewed 379 bank CEOs in 20 emerging markets to identify their banks’ main competitors. We show that banks are more likely to identify another bank as a main competitor in small-business lending when both banks are foreign owned or relationship oriented; when there exists a large spatial overlap in their branch networks and when the potential competitor has fewer hierarchical layers. We then construct a novel bilateral competition measure …
Fiscal transfers, local government, and entrepreneurship
Can local government spending spur entrepreneurial activity? To answer this question, we study a setting where, around multiple pre‐determined and non‐manipulable thresholds, municipalities with lower tax revenues receive direct and different monetary grants from the national budget. Employing a fuzzy regression discontinuity design, we find a positive impact of fiscal transfers on the number of firms, especially sole proprietorships and small fi…
Introduction to Jebo special issue on wars, economic sanctions, economic behaviors, and institutions
Climate‐Related Financial Policy and Systemic Risk
We examine the relationship between climate‐related financial policies (CRFPs) and banks' systemic risk. Using a sample of 458 banks in 47 countries over the period 2000–2020, we document that more stringent CRFPs are detrimental to overall financial stability and contribute to increased system‐wide distress, where excessive aggregate regulatory constraints may impose burdens on banks. Decomposing systemic risk shows that stricter CRFPs raise ban…
From Crisis to War
What is the link between cyclical systemic risk and bank solvency, and can we make it work for policymakers? This paper develops a framework for high‐frequency monitoring of banking system health based on the link between the degree of accumulated vulnerabilities and bank solvency. Using local projection methods with a distributional focus, we show that this link is nonlinear, with substantially stronger effects in the lower tail of the profitabi…
Monetary Policy, Held-to-Maturity Securities, and Uninsured Deposit Withdrawals
This paper shows that an increase in the Federal funds rate is associated with an increase in banks' unrealized losses due to their held-to-maturity (HTM) portfolio. This increase exposes banks to large uninsured deposit withdrawals as depositors seek a flight to safety. This relationship is present mainly for banks with investment portfolio losses and those with a lower capital ratio. Our results highlight the importance of banks' HTM securities…
Economics (13 works) · Business (11 works) · Banking stability, regulation, efficiency (9 works) · Financial system (8 works) · Finance (6 works) · Corporate Finance and Governance (5 works) · Global Financial Crisis and Policies (4 works) · Housing Market and Economics (4 works) · Market economy (4 works) · Monetary economics (4 works)