KREDIT und KAPITAL - Issue 1/2002


Contents


Articles

Chu, Kam Hon
Do Free Banks Overexpand in Unison? Time Series Evidence from Hong Kong 1954-1966

Buch, Claudia M. and Golder, Stefan M
Domestic and Foreign Banks in Germany: Do they Differ?

Borchert, Manfred
Will West European Banks Affect Monetary Control?

Schirmeister, Raimund and Nadler, Michael
Effiziente Wohnungsfinanzierungssysteme für Entwicklungs- und Transformationsländer - Ein Transfer der Globalstrategien und Resolutionen der Vereinten Nationen auf die Ebene der Finanzdienstleistungen


Reports

Schäfer, Henry and Stederoth, Ralf
Portfolioselektion und Anlagepolitik mittels Ethik-Filtern ein Überblick zum Stand der empirischen Kapitalmarktforschung


Book Reviews

Oehler, Andreas and Unser, Matthias
Finanzwirtschaftliches Risikomanagement (Christian Pohnke)

Binswanger, Mathias
Stock Markets, Speculative Bubbles and Economic Growth. New Dimensions in the Co-evolution of Real and Financial Markets (Wolfgang Filc)


Summaries

Chu, Kam Hon
"Do Free Banks Overexpand in Unison? - Time series Evidence from Hong Kong, 1954-1966"

This paper applies the Engle- Granger cointegration framework to test the in- concert overexpansion hypothesis under free banking. The highly unregulated Hong Kong banking system during 1954- 1966 is examined. The results suggest a long- run relationship between aggregate bank loans and GDP, both in real terms. Furthermore, the error correction model indicates that deviations of bank loans from the long- run relationship were "self- correcting" in the sense that real loans in excess of its long- run equilibrium level in a year were followed by a contraction in the next year and vice versa. The time- series results are reinforced by further examination of individual banks’ loan growth rates. Overall, the findings reject the in- concert overexpansion hypothesis. (JEL E 32, E 42, E 51)

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Buch, Claudia M. and Golder, Stefan M
"Domestic and Foreign Banks in Germany: Do They differ?"

The German banking market is notorious for its low degree of market penetration by foreign financial institutions, suggesting that markets serviced by domestic and foreign banks are segmented. This paper employs a number of tests to determine whether activities of domestic and foreign banks are related. Using data for the years 1986- 1999, we fail to find evidence for similarities in the activities of domestic and foreign banks. This holds across the two types of domestic banks(large and savings banks) and across four different activities (loans and deposits of banks and non- banks) considered. (JEL G 15, G 21, G 24, G 32)"

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Borchert, Manfred
"Will West European Banks Affect Monetary Control?"

The objective of this study is to analyze the business direction of the largest European banks in order to extract possible impacts regarding the efficacy of monetary control. In a cross- section analysis (using data of the largest 51 European banks) the influencing variables for granting loans by banks have been correlated, followed by a factor analysis (a) of balance sheet items in order to extract the importance of asset items, and (b) of income statements in order to extract the importance of off- balance items. As a result, loans will be refinanced increasingly by items not under monetary control. (JEL E 44, G 21)

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Schirmeister, Raimund and Nadler, Michael
"Efficient Housing Finance Systems for Developing and Transformation Countries - Transferring UN Global Strategies and Resolutions to the Financial Services Level"

In the opinions of the United Nations Organisation and the World Bank, the housing sector is of key importance for economic growth and economic development. They believe that realising private housing investment presupposes the existence of domestic financial intermediaries. This study recommends for purposes of implementing this strategy the introduction of specialised collective saving institutions. In combination with mortgage banks to be set up later for development policy purposes, this is the source of an efficient housing finance system within the meaning of "sustainable development of human settlement". Assuming that price- index- related financial services are appropriate for mitigating housing problems of the respective population in developing and transformation countries, this combination of systems shows noticeable advantages also over those other housing finance alternatives that reflect the Anglo- American way of thinking in particular.

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Reports

Schäfer, Henry and Stederoth, Ralf
"Ethically Screened Portfolios and Investment Policy in the Light of Empirical Studies - An Overview of the Latest State of Empirical Capital Market Research -"

Portfolios and investment strategies guided by ethical criteria have grown in

popularity especially in Anglo-Saxon markets in recent years, and research on ethical stock picking has been subject to continuous analysis in the United States from the 1970s. Ethically structured portfolios are generally the outcome of an active investment strategy reflecting the principles of style investing. In a capital et theory context, such portfolios represent, a priori, inefficient solutions burdening investors with the costs that arise from lacking diversification and from insufficient compensation for the unsystematic risk. Most empirical studies on ethical stock picking are based on CAPM or APT models. Another group proceeds from event studies as a method. After the empirical work hitherto done has been subjected to evaluation, it would not be fair, overall, to speak about any definitive underperformance of portfolios screened for ethico- social purposes, as would have had to be expected in terms of capital market theory indicators. Many studies have even found that ethically screened portfolios outperform with respect to benchmark. On the whole, the studies are highly heterogenous in terms of the methods used. This paper is meant to be an overview of the latest findings of empirical research. Some of the findings reached by individual empirical studies are the source of further indications regarding the critical discussion currently under way on the known capital market models as well as on approaches towards how they can be further developed.

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