Bank Income Smoothing, Societal Patriarchy and Policy Uncertainty
研究了1997-2023年26个OECD国家745家银行的数据，发现政策不确定性高时，父权制强的社会中的银行会减少使用贷款损失准备来平滑收入，而金融危机期间收入平滑行为反而增加。
ABSTRACT Using a sample of 745 banks from 26 OECD countries over the period 1997–2023, we investigate the moderating effects of societal patriarchy on bank income smoothing (IS), amidst policy uncertainty (PU). Results indicate that in periods of high PU, banks operating in highly patriarchal societies tend to curtail the use of loan loss provisions (LLP) to smooth their income. Specifically, the moderating effect of patriarchy is attenuated in a low uncertainty environment, while in periods of financial crisis marked by high uncertainty, income smoothing rises dramatically. Moreover, better governance frameworks tend to limit income smoothing behaviour in banks, highlighting the significance of robust monitoring and governance. Our results survive the Placebo test, GMM estimation and instrument variable analysis, hence remain robust to concerns of endogeneity and reverse causality.