Does country risk rating explain shadow banking development? Insights from advanced and emerging market economies

Abstract

This study fills a research gap by specifically investigating the effect of country risk rating (CR) on shadow banking (SB) development from a global perspective using a dynamic panel estimation approach covering the period 2010–2019. Furthermore, the study explores whether a country's characteristics impact this nexus by grouping countries into advanced and emerging market economies based on their development level. To the best of our knowledge, few empirical studies have been conducted looking into this relationship from this perspective, and these findings open a new debate in banking literature. The empirical results reveal that CR positively impacts SB in advanced, emerging, and global samples of countries, implying that lower vulnerability to risk factors causes SB expansion. In addition, the results highlight that traditional macroeconomic and institutional factors impact SB development, although the extent of the effect and statistical significance of the factors vary and depend on countries' development levels. Remarkably, the empirical results confirm the validity of the complementarity and regulatory arbitrage hypotheses and support the possible asymmetric implications of monetary policy on SB. The results are robust when alternative model specifications are used and have significant implications for policymakers and regulatory bodies.