Ruzzier, Gianmarco
Contact Information
Available for interviews at
European Job Market for Economists (EEA)
Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA)
Research interests
Banking. Corporate Finance. Macro-Finance.
Placement Officer
Libertad González [email protected]
References
Andrea Caggese (Advisor) [email protected] |
Filippo Ippolito(Advisor) [email protected] |
Christian Eufinger [email protected] |
José Luis Peydró [email protected] |
Research
"Specialized banks and the transmission of monetary policy:Evidence from the U.S. syndicated loan market" (Job Market Paper)
Using a sample of U.S. syndicated loans I examine the impact of banks’ sectoral market specialization on credit supply in response to changes in the federal funds rate. A one standard deviation rate reduction leads to a 1.5% quarterly growth in credit supply between the bank and the sector for specialized lenders relative to less specialized ones, peaking over 10 quarters. Financial frictions reinforce these lending patterns with lower liquidity banks exhibiting heightened responsiveness to interest rate fluctuations for a given level of specialization. At the bank level, concentrated portfolio lenders observe improved income performance and reduced loan delinquencies when the federal funds rate falls. These outcomes are consistent with banks leveraging their informational advantage to engage with more creditworthy firms, all without reducing their risk aversion. These results underscore the significance of a bank’s sectoral specialization in the transmission of monetary policy and its lasting implications for the banks’ portfolios.
“Customer capital and corporate borrowing" (with L. Falasconi and L. Nord)
This paper investigates the relationship between customer acquisition, debt structure, and firm dynamics in the US. Using a sample of publicly listed firms, we find that firms allocating significant resources to attract customers have a debt composition tilted towards unsecured credit. In addition, firms with higher fractions of customer expenses issue higher amounts of unsecured debt relative to secured debt when raising additional funding. We propose and test a novel mechanism in which firms with higher customer expenses can leverage their going-concern value to boost their debt capacity through unsecured borrowing. To rationalize our empirical results, we developed a theory of firm dynamics with customer capital and uncollateralized debt to study the joint dynamics of firms’ customer base and their borrowing.
“Housing and Banking Nexus" (with F. Amaral)
Motivated by the cross-sectional variation in house price and quality, and bank exposure to housing markets, we examine the relationship between housing collateral value uncertainty, loan securitization and its implication for banks’ portfolio decisions. We first document that counties exposed to higher collateral value uncertainty experience lower origination, securitization, loan-to-income ratios, and higher spreads. We then explore the underlying mechanisms and show that bank exposure to collateral value uncertainty is negatively related to foreclosure discounts and mortgage-backed security, indicating higher potential liquidity concerns. As such, bank exposure to higher collateral uncertainty crowds out commercial loans. These observations highlight the importance of liquidity constraints as a channel through which house price risk affects lending activity.
“Bank's productivity and firms outcomes"
This paper studies the implications of banks’ productivity on lending relationships. I document how banks’ ability to generate revenues over their input of productions affects banks’ security design and its implications for firms’ investment exploiting a sample of US syndicated loans over the period of 1994-2020. Firms that match with productive banks face a steeper pricing function for a given level of borrower risk, which is associated with a premium for matching with productive banks as these lenders can allocate more funds for riskier borrowers. Small firms that match with productive banks invest more and grow faster. At the bank level, I document that this lending behaviour is not associated with higher bank risk-exposure, but instead is related to better screening technology and information gathering.