The impact of prudential toolkits on loan growth in Central and Eastern European banking systems

This paper examines the effects of prudential policy on loan growth in 11 Central and Eastern European banking systems, spanning the period from 2000 to 2015. Based on the measures taken by the authorities of our sample countries, we build several prudential indices. Additionally, we control for the effects of several country-specific factors and bank-specific characteristics. Finally, we test the homogeneity of these effects, accounting for cycle, ownership, and bank effects. Generally, the empirical findings reveal a negative correlation between prudential toolkits and credit growth, with a conspicuous impact for tools targeting lending activity. We see that the effects of a change in the lending framework on loan growth are heterogeneous when we account for crisis and cycle patterns. Furthermore, the interaction between ownership and crisis reveals that, in normal times, foreign banks recorded higher loan growth compared to domestic banks. The opposite is true in turbulent times. The analysis of interactions between credit-based measures and bank-specific variables show that the effects of prudential actions depend on the bank size and leverage.     

Herding Behavior in CEE Stock Markets Under Asymmetric Conditions: A Quantile Regression Analysis

This article investigates herding behavior in ten Central and East European (CEE) stock markets by using daily data on stock prices for 384 companies from January 2, 2003, to December 31, 2013. Our study is based on the methodology developed by Chang, Cheng, and Khorana [2000 Chang, Eric, Joseph Cheng, and Ajay Khorana. “An Examination of Herd Behavior in Equity Markets: An International Perspective.” Journal of Banking and Finance, 24, (2000), pp. 1651–1679.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]], adapted to detect herding behavior under different market conditions. The authors use quantile regression analysis as an estimation method and find evidence of herding behavior in all CEE countries, except for Poland and Romania. When the market is up and the trading volume increases, investors become enthusiastic and optimistic, neglecting their own information and following each other in buying transactions. Conversely, when the market declines, driven by panic and fear, investors follow the market consensus and engage in overselling transactions.