Cyclical investment behavior across financial institutions

Arbeitspapier

This paper examines the investment behavior of different financial institutions in debt securities with a particular focus on their response to price changes. For identification, we use security-level data from the German Microdatabase Securities Holdings Statistics. Our results suggest that banks and investment funds may destabilize the market by responding in a pro-cyclical manner to price changes. In contrast, insurance companies and pension funds buy securities when their prices fall and vice versa. While investment funds and banks sell securities that are trading at a discount and whose prices are falling, they buy securities that are trading at premium and whose prices are rising. The opposite is the case for insurance companies and pension funds. This counter-cyclical investment behavior of insurance companies and pension funds may stabilize markets whenever prices have been pushed away from fundamentals. Since our results suggest that institutions with impermanent balance sheet characteristics may exacerbate price dynamics, it is of crucial importance for financial stability to monitor the investor base as well as the balance sheets of both levered and non-levered investors.

Object Details

• ISBN: 978-92-95081-45-1
• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: ESRB Working Paper Series ; No. 18

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Current Account Adjustment; Short-term Capital Movements ; Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions ; International Financial Markets ; Financial Institutions and Services: General
• Subject: Cyclicality ; Portfolio Allocation ; Financial Stability ; Debt Capital Flows ; GVAR

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Timmer, Yannick
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), European System of Financial Supervision
• (where): Frankfurt a. M.
• (when): 2016

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.2849/263450
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/193525
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:44 AM CET