Assessment of the connection between the bank’s capitalization level and the country’s macroeconomic stability

Abstract

A well-capitalized banking system is crucial for maintaining macroeconomic stability, preventing financial crises, and bolstering the economy's resilience to shocks. Governments often strive to ensure adequate bank capitalization to foster stable economic growth. This article aims to assess the relationship between bank capitalization and macroeconomic stability in 34 European countries from 2010 to 2021, based on World Bank statistics. The study utilizes the principal components method to identify relevant indicators of bank capitalization and macroeconomic stability, canonical analysis and regression analyses to detail the interconnections between these blocks. The canonical analysis confirms a link between bank capitalization and macroeconomic stability indicators with a coefficient of determination of 0.617 signifying that 61.8% of the variance in macroeconomic stability is explained by fluctuations in bank capitalization. The article presents one fixed-effect and two random-effect regression models detailing the directions and strength of influence of independent variables (NPL, ROA, ROE - indicators of the bank capitalization level) on dependent variables (INFLATION, UNEMPL, GINI - indicators of macroeconomic stability). The Wald criteria and a p-value less than 0.05 indicated that the models with random effects (UNEMPL, GINI) were statistically significant. The results reveal that a 1% increase in non-performing loans correlates with a 0.25% rise in the unemployment rate, and a 1% increase in return on assets leads to a 0.08% increase in the unemployment rate. Additionally, a 1% increase in non-performing loans raises the Gini index by 0.05%, while a 1% increase in return on equity decreases the Gini index by 0.03%. Notably, the impact of return on assets on the unemployment rate and the Gini coefficient is not statistically significant (p-value greater than 0.05). These results can inform the forecasting of national indicators, the development of tools to ensure sufficient bank capitalization, and the formulation of effective macroeconomic policies, taking into account fluctuations in banks' capitalization levels as key financial intermediaries.