Volume 19, Issue 1 March 2023

Bank Lending and the European Debt Crisis: Evidence from a New Survey

Abstract

I study the supply of credit in Italy in the years 2009–14, covering the European sovereign debt crisis period. By using a new survey, I find that 40 percent of the decline in business lending originates from the tightening of bank credit standards, with a significant change in 2011 and a seemingly greater role for supply in the South of the country. The unique regional breakdown and the wider cross-section of the new survey also improve our understanding of the variation in the data and reveal substantial differences between banks.

Authors

  • Andrea Orame

JEL codes

  • E32
  • E51
  • G01
  • G21
  • G28
  • G32