Jean-Bernard Chatelain

Can Financial Infrastructures Foster Economic Development

In this paper, financial infrastructures increase the efficiency of the banking sector: they decrease the market power (due to horizontal differentiation) of the financial intermediaries, lower the cost of capital, increase the number of depositors and the amount of intermediated savings, factors which in turn increase the growth rate and may help countries to take off from a poverty trap. Taxation finances financial infrastructures and decreases the private productivity of capital. Growth and welfare maximising levels of financial infrastructures are computed.

Investment, the Cost of Capital, and Monetary Policy in the Nineties in France: A Panel Data Investigation

Using a large panel of about 6,946 French manufacturing firms, this paper investigates the effect of monetary policy from 1990 to 1999 on investment through the cost of capital and the cash-flow channels. We compare several specifications of the neo-classical demand for capital, taking into account transitory dynamics. The user cost of capital has a significant negative elasticity with respect to capital using the traditional within estimates, or as long as cash-flow are not added in the regression when using Generalized Method of Moments estimates. Asymmetries of effect of monetary policy are evaluated on different groups of firms which differ with respect to informational asymmetries.

Optimal capacity in the Banking Sector and Economic Growth

The paper investigates, from the welfare and growth point of view, the determination of the optimal capacity of the banking system. For that purpose, we consider an overlapping generation model with endogenous growth. There is horizontal differentiation and imperfect competition in the banking sector. Macroeconomic shocks affect the return on capital and, together with the expectations of depositors, condition the stability of the banking sector. We specify to what extent deposit insurance may reduce instability and increase the number of deposits, welfare and growth. We also characterize the conditions under which excess banking capacities may appear and how their reduction may improve welfare.

Mark-Up and Capital Structure of the Firm Facing Uncertainty

This note shows that, with pre-set price and capital decisions of firms facing uncertainty and financial market imperfections, price, mark up and the expected degree of capacity utilization (resp. capital) decreases (resp. increases) with the firm internal net worth.

Pitfalls in Investment Euler Equations

This paper investigates three pitfalls concerning the test of the Euler equation facing quadratic adjustment costs and perfect capital markets on a large balanced panel data of 4025 French firms. First, the quadratic parameterization of adjustment costs is too restrictive, and power series approximations of adjustment costs are tested. Second, we isolate firms whose optimal Euler condition is not altered even in the presence of fixed adjustment costs. Third, we identify instruments which contribute to model failure via standard GMM tests. These methods point out that financial instruments contribute to reject strongly the standard model, which shows that it is misspecified.

Monetary Policy Transmission in the Euro Area: New Evidence From Micro Data on Firms and Banks

This paper presents an overview of the results of a research project on monetary transmission pursued by the Eurosystem, which has analysed micro data on firms and banks in several countries of the euro area in great detail. There is strong empirical support for an interest rate channel working through firm investment. Furthermore, a credit channel can be identified with firm micro data. On the bank side, there is evidence that lending reacts differently to monetary policy according to bank balance sheet characteristics. In particular, banks that have a less liquid asset composition show a stronger loan supply response. This finding may be due to banks drawing on their liquid assets to cushion the effects of monetary policy on their loan portfolio, which is in line with the existence of close relationships between banks and their loan customers.

Structural modelling of investment and financial constraints: Where do we stand?

This paper surveys issues with respect to the structural modelling of econometric tests of investment facing financial constraints, to their link with firms data and assets prices, and to their impact in macroeconomic modelling. The key issue is to ground much more the interpretation of the sensitivity of investment to liquidity variables such as cash flow as a measure of financial constraints. The structural modelling of investment facing financial constraints is also limited by the structural modelling of the force driving investment dynamics such as adjustment costs, which has not been so successful empirically.

Patents as collateral

This paper studies how the assignment of patents as collateral determines the savings of firms and magnifies the effect of innovative rents on investment in research and development (R&D). We analyse the behaviour of innovative firms that face random and lumpy investment opportunities in R&D. High growth rates of innovations, possibly higher than the real rate of interest, may be achieved despite financial constraints. There is an optimal level of publicly funded policy by the patent and trademark office that minimizes the legal uncertainty surrounding patents as collateral and maximizes the growth rate of innovations.

The Profit–Investment–Unemployment Nexus and Capacity Utilization in a Stock-Flow Consistent Model

This paper studies under which conditions the share of profit in value-added, financial constraints on investment and capital shortage may foster unemployment and may limit the growth of capital and/or the growth of aggregate demand, in a stock-flow consistent model. The efficiency of demand-side versus supply-side economic policies (decrease of the real interest rate and/or of the real wage, increase of the leverage ceiling constraint) depends on capital shortage and credit rationing, which are not necessarily simultaneous due to the effects of investment on aggregate demand and supply.

Explicit Lagrange Multiplier for Firms Facing a Debt Ceiling Constraint

This paper provides the explicit expression of investment facing a binding debt ceiling and the explicit expression of the Lagrange multipliers related to the binding debt ceiling constraint. This result allows to check for misspecification of the parameterizations of these Lagrange multipliers used in Euler investment equations tests during the 1990s.