scholarly journals Low interest rates and executive risk-taking incentives: Evidence from the United States

2020 ◽  
pp. 234094442092771
Author(s):  
Paula Castro ◽  
Maria T Tascon ◽  
Francisco J Castaño ◽  
Borja Amor-Tapia

This article contributes to the literature by indicating how certain monetary policies impact the compensation incentives of US managers to adopt riskier business policies. Specifically, based on the agency problems between shareholders and managers and between shareholders and creditors, a research framework is developed to identify the influence of low interest rates on managers’ risk-taking incentives proxied by the sensitivity of executive compensation to stock return volatility (Vega). We examine 1,293 firms in the United States between 2000 and 2016, and the results indicate that low interest rates increase the managers’ short-term risk-taking incentives and that those incentives contribute to the risk effectively taken by the firm. Our results are robust to the use of alternative monetary proxies and to the presence of passive versus active institutional shareholders. JEL CLASSIFICATION E41; E43; E51; M12; M52

2000 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alberto Alesina

Current surpluses in the U.S. have been achieved by a combination of a strong economy, low interest rates, and sharp cuts in defense spending. These surpluses follow a period (the 1980s) of rather exceptional budget deficit. This paper investigates the origin, size, and expected future patterns of the U.S. budget balance. It discusses how different political forces may generate alternative fiscal scenarios for the U.S. in the next decade.


2012 ◽  
Vol 102 (1) ◽  
pp. 524-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gauti B Eggertsson

Can government policies that increase the monopoly power of firms and the militancy of unions increase output? This paper shows that the answer is yes under certain “emergency” conditions. These emergency conditions—zero interest rates and deflation—were satisfied during the Great Depression in the United States. The New Deal, which facilitated monopolies and union militancy, was therefore expansionary in the model presented. This conclusion is contrary to a large previous literature. The main reason for this divergence is that this paper incorporates rigid prices and the zero bound on the short-term interest rate. JEL: E23, E32, E52, E62, J51, N12, N42


Author(s):  
John Zagar

The Edmonton Sun newspaper recently carried an interesting article entitled "Maybe U.S. needs yard sale" written by Eric Margolis. In Eric Margolis's article, he talks about the recent financial crisis devastating the Unites States of America's (US) economy, along with much of the other global economies as well (Margolis, 2008). The current economic situation has been blamed on the tendency of certain banks to lend out loans (at low interest rates) to individuals and corporations who do not have the funds to payback those loans. This mistake has occurred in nation-states such as the United States, and Iceland. However, Eric Margolis article is not about the causes of the current economic crisis per se, but rather on the irony of the whole situation facing the United States as a consequence of their belief in neo-liberalism and their treatment of other nation-states. However, first we will look at the specific article.


1991 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 34-59
Author(s):  
Andrew Gurney ◽  
Jan Willem In't Veld ◽  
Ray Barrell

GNP growth in the major seven economies continues to decline from the cyclical peak reached in 1988. The latest national accounts statistics show that all major seven economies are now growing more slowly than they did last year, with the United States, United Kingdom and Canada in recession. This slowdown in activity appears to have been caused primarily by the tightening of monetary policy that occurred between 1988 and 1990. Short-term interest rates rose by 4.4 percentage points in Germany between 1987 and 1990, by 3 percentage points in Japan between 1987 and 1990, and by 2.2 per cent in the United States between 1987 and 1989.


2021 ◽  
Vol 255 ◽  
pp. 79-84
Author(s):  
William A. Allen

This paper describes how the large budget deficits of 2020 in the United States and the United Kingdom were financed, how central banks are in practice managed not just short-term interest rates but also yields on government bonds, and how their ability to resist a post-coronavirus surge in inflation has been compromised.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 267
Author(s):  
Akhmad Jayadi ◽  
Tanto Firmansyah

Indonesia is a maritime country that has huge potential in fisheries sector. The average of indonesian fisheries production and export volumes always increase every year. This study aims to analyze the effect of exchange rates, government spending, inflation, interest rates, and sanitation policies to Indonesia fishery export to the United States in 1989-2019. Data were obtained from the Indonesian Ministry of Finance, the World Bank, UN COMTRADE, and the Indonesian Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries. This study uses the Error Coerrection Model (ECM) method to examine the effect of the independent variables on the dependent variable in the long term and short term. This study explains that in the long-term, government spending and exchange rate have positive effect, and interest rates have negative effect on export. In short-term, government spending and exchange rate have positive effect on export. Inflation and sanitation policy do not affect export in the long-term or short-term, while interest rates in the short-term do not affect Indonesian fishery exports. Keywords: Exports, Government Spending, Exchange Rates, Non-Tariff Barriers, Error Correction Model.JEL: F10, F13, C32


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-190
Author(s):  
Guido Baldi ◽  
Alexander Lange

Abstract The interest rate sensitivity of investment has often played an important role in macroeconomic models. However, many vector autoregressive (VAR) models do not include investment to the list of variables. In this paper, we empirically investigate the size and the evolution of the interest rate sensitivity of investment for the United States and the four largest European economies in the last few decades. We use a VAR model with four variables at quarterly frequency: real investment, real gross domestic product (GDP), inflation, and a measure of the short-term interest rate. In our VAR, the structural interest rate shock is identified under the assumption that macroeconomic quantities and inflation react to interest rate innovations with a lag. We test the appropriateness of this specification by comparing our approach with the identification of shocks derived from the changes in volatility approach. For the countries under consideration, we determine a date during either the 1980s or the 1990s where the interest rate sensitivity of investment began to decrease and became less responsive to monetary policy. In addition, we find that the interest rate sensitivity of investment has been higher in the United States than in Europe, particularly in the first subperiod. Zusammenfassung Die Zinssensitivität der Investitionen spielt oft eine große Rolle in theoretischen makroökonomischen Modellen. In dieser Studie untersuchen wir empirisch die Höhe und die zeitliche Änderung der Zinssensitivität der Investitionen für die Vereinigten Staaten und die vier größten europäischen Volkswirtschaften. Wir verwenden ein VAR-Modell mit vier Variablen: reale Investitionen, reales Bruttoinlandsprodukt, Inflation und kurzfristige Zinsen. In unserem VAR identifizieren wir den strukturellen Schock unter der Annahme, dass die realen makroökonomischen Variablen verzögert auf einen Zinsschock reagieren. Wir testen die Angemessenheit dieser Spezifikation, indem wir unsere Vorgehensweise mit der Identifikation durch den “changes in volatility approach” vergleichen. Wir finden heraus, dass entweder in den 1980er oder frühen 1990er Jahren ein Strukturbruch stattgefunden und sich die Zinssensitivität der Investitionen verringert hat. Interessanterweise zeigen unsere Resultate zudem, dass die Zinssensitivität der Investitionen in den Vereinigten Staaten höher gewesen ist als in den untersuchten europäischen Ländern – insbesondere bis in die 1980er Jahre. JEL Classification: E22, E43, E52


1996 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 747-781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott Shane

This paper examines rates of entrepreneurship over time in the U.S. economy. It finds strong support for the argument that variations in rates of entrepreneurship follow a Schumpeterian model. Changes in rates of entrepreneurship appear to be driven by changes in technology. Some evidence is also found for the effects of the Protestant Ethic, interest rates, prior rates of entrepreneurship, risk-taking propensity, business failure rates, economic growth, immigration, and age distribution of the population.


2014 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Selcuk KENDIRLI ◽  
Sedat KUSGOZOGLU ◽  
M. Sakir BASARAN

In this study we examine the impacts of expansionary monetary policies executed by the Federal Reserve on poverty in the United States of America. It has been discussed in various studies that the Fed’s expansionary monetary policies create a less positive impact on economy as a whole than financial sector. In this study, the expansionary effects of expansionary policies on the poor living in America will be discussed. The main thesis of the study is that the poor living in the United States benefited less from expansionary monetary policies than either financial sector or the US economy as a whole. When discussing the thesis of the study both employed and unemployed poor will be discussed. Therefore, it will be questioned that the decrease in the unemployment rate is the indicator of the fight against poverty.Indicators such as indices and interest rates in the financial markets, and indicators such as growth rates and unemployment rates in the overall economy are regarded as essential indicators but as for poverty it’s hard to find such regarded indicators. Unfortunately, there are not too many statistics about the poor living in the United States in the reports of the international organizations. Thus the main trouble of the study is that international comparisons are almost impossible. Therefore, various indicators produced by the U.S. government agencies of various indicators will be used in this study.


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