Publisher:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften, Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft, Kiel, Hamburg
Abstract:
We explore the effect of tax reforms in Italy and Belgium, respectively that decrease the cost of equity on bank lending. Because local firms were also affected by these reforms, we em-ploy loan level data from the German credit register, to identify the differential impact on lending by banks that were 'treated'. We find that the decrease in the cost of equity leads banks to raise their equity ratio, and to expand their balance sheet by increasing the amount of credit supplied in Germany.