Macroprudential Policy Spillovers and International Banking - Taking the Gravity Approach

Abstract

In this paper I study how the effects of nationally implemented macroprudential policy spill across borders via international lending. For a set of 157 countries, I estimate a gravity model applied to international banking where the use of different macroprudential policy measures enter as friction variables. My findings support the existence of cross-border spillovers from macroprudential policy. Moreover, I find that the overall effect from more macroprudential regulation is highly dependent on the income group of the countries in which banks operate: The effect is of opposite sign for advanced and for emerging economies. I argue that the difference may tell of banks having more opportunities for regulatory arbitrage in emerging market economies.