Covid Economics Vetted and Real-Time Papers
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COVID ECONOMICS VETTED AND REAL-TIME PAPERS ISSUE 72 18 MARCH 2021 COUNTERCYCLICAL CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS Naz Koont and Stefan Walz MEASURING INFLATION GLOBAL PRODUCTION NETWORKS Alberto Cavallo Hongyong Zhang SHE-CESSION WHO’S BEEN HURT? Stefania Fabrizio, Diego B.P. Gomes and Brad J. Hershbein and Harry J. Holzer Marina M. Tavares Covid Economics Vetted and Real-Time Papers Covid Economics, Vetted and Real-Time Papers, from CEPR, brings together formal investigations on the economic issues emanating from the Covid outbreak, based on explicit theory and/or empirical evidence, to improve the knowledge base. Founder: Beatrice Weder di Mauro, President of CEPR Editor: Charles Wyplosz, Graduate Institute Geneva and CEPR Contact: Submissions should be made at https://portal.cepr.org/call-papers- covid-economics. Other queries should be sent to [email protected]. Copyright for the papers appearing in this issue of Covid Economics: Vetted and Real-Time Papers is held by the individual authors. The Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) The Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) is a network of over 1,500 research economists based mostly in European universities. The Centre’s goal is twofold: to promote world-class research, and to get the policy-relevant results into the hands of key decision-makers. CEPR’s guiding principle is ‘Research excellence with policy relevance’. A registered charity since it was founded in 1983, CEPR is independent of all public and private interest groups. It takes no institutional stand on economic policy matters and its core funding comes from its Institutional Members and sales of publications. Because it draws on such a large network of researchers, its output reflects a broad spectrum of individual viewpoints as well as perspectives drawn from civil society. CEPR research may include views on policy, but the Trustees of the Centre do not give prior review to its publications. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and not those of CEPR. Chair of the Board Sir Charlie Bean Founder and Honorary President Richard Portes President Beatrice Weder di Mauro Vice Presidents Maristella Botticini Ugo Panizza Philippe Martin Hélène Rey Chief Executive Officer Tessa Ogden Editorial Board Beatrice Weder di Mauro, CEPR Tom Kompas, University of Melbourne and Charles Wyplosz, Graduate Institute Geneva CEBRA and CEPR Miklós Koren, Central European University Viral V. Acharya, Stern School of Business, and CEPR NYU and CEPR Anton Korinek, University of Virginia and Guido Alfani, Bocconi University and CEPR CEPR Franklin Allen, Imperial College Business Michael Kuhn, International Institute for School and CEPR Applied Systems Analysis and Wittgenstein Michele Belot, Cornell University and CEPR Centre David Bloom, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Maarten Lindeboom, Vrije Universiteit Public Health Amsterdam Tito Boeri, Bocconi University and CEPR Philippe Martin, Sciences Po and CEPR Alison Booth, University of Essex and CEPR Warwick McKibbin, ANU College of Asia and Markus K Brunnermeier, Princeton the Pacific University and CEPR Kevin Hjortshøj O’Rourke, NYU Abu Dhabi Michael C Burda, Humboldt Universitaet zu and CEPR Berlin and CEPR Evi Pappa, European University Institute and Luis Cabral, New York University and CEPR CEPR Paola Conconi, ECARES, Universite Libre de Barbara Petrongolo, Queen Mary University, Bruxelles and CEPR London, LSE and CEPR Giancarlo Corsetti, University of Cambridge Richard Portes, London Business School and and CEPR CEPR Fiorella De Fiore, Bank for International Carol Propper, Imperial College London and Settlements and CEPR CEPR Mathias Dewatripont, ECARES, Universite Lucrezia Reichlin, London Business School Libre de Bruxelles and CEPR and CEPR Jonathan Dingel, University of Chicago Booth Ricardo Reis, London School of Economics School and CEPR and CEPR Barry Eichengreen, University of California, Hélène Rey, London Business School and Berkeley and CEPR CEPR Simon J Evenett, University of St Gallen and Dominic Rohner, University of Lausanne and CEPR CEPR Maryam Farboodi, MIT and CEPR Paola Sapienza, Northwestern University and Antonio Fatás, INSEAD Singapore and CEPR CEPR Pierre-Yves Geoffard, Paris School of Moritz Schularick, University of Bonn and Economics and CEPR CEPR Francesco Giavazzi, Bocconi University and Paul Seabright, Toulouse School of CEPR Economics and CEPR Christian Gollier, Toulouse School of Flavio Toxvaerd, University of Cambridge Economics and CEPR Christoph Trebesch, Christian-Albrechts- Timothy J. Hatton, University of Essex and Universitaet zu Kiel and CEPR CEPR Karen-Helene Ulltveit-Moe, University of Ethan Ilzetzki, London School of Economics Oslo and CEPR and CEPR Jan C. van Ours, Erasmus University Beata Javorcik, EBRD and CEPR Rotterdam and CEPR Simon Johnson, MIT and CEPR Thierry Verdier, Paris School of Economics Sebnem Kalemli-Ozcan, University of and CEPR Maryland and CEPR Rik Frehen Ethics Covid Economics will feature high quality analyses of economic aspects of the health crisis. However, the pandemic also raises a number of complex ethical issues. Economists tend to think about trade-offs, in this case lives vs. costs, patient selection at a time of scarcity, and more. In the spirit of academic freedom, neither the Editors of Covid Economics nor CEPR take a stand on these issues and therefore do not bear any responsibility for views expressed in the articles. Submission to professional journals The following journals have indicated that they will accept submissions of papers featured in Covid Economics because they are working papers. Most expect revised versions. This list will be updated regularly. American Economic Journal, Applied Journal of Economic Theory Economics Journal of the European Economic American Economic Journal, Association* Economic Policy Journal of Finance American Economic Journal, Journal of Financial Economics Macroeconomics Journal of Health Economics American Economic Journal, Journal of International Economics Microeconomics Journal of Labor Economics* American Economic Review Journal of Monetary Economics American Economic Review, Insights Journal of Public Economics American Journal of Health Journal of Public Finance and Public Economics Choice Canadian Journal of Economics Journal of Political Economy Econometrica* Journal of Population Economics Economic Journal Quarterly Journal of Economics Economics of Disasters and Climate Review of Corporate Finance Studies* Change Review of Economics and Statistics International Economic Review Review of Economic Studies* Journal of Development Economics Review of Financial Studies Journal of Econometrics* Journal of Economic Growth (*) Must be a significantly revised and extended version of the paper featured in Covid Economics. Covid Economics Vetted and Real-Time Papers Issue 72, 18 March 2021 Contents The value of countercyclical capital requirements: Evidence from COVID-19 1 Naz Koont and Stefan Walz The impact of COVID-19 on global production networks: Evidence from Japanese multinational firms 26 Hongyong Zhang The COVID-19 pandemic’s evolving impacts on the labour market: Who’s been hurt and what we should do 68 Brad J. Hershbein and Harry J. Holzer Inflation with Covid consumption baskets 121 Alberto Cavallo The COVID-19 she-cession: The employment penalty of taking care of young children 136 Stefania Fabrizio, Diego B.P. Gomes and Marina M. Tavares 1 Covid Economics Issue 72, 18 March 2021 The value of countercyclical capital requirements: Evidence from COVID-191 Naz Koont2 and Stefan Walz3 Date submitted: 16 March 2021; Date accepted: 16 March 2021 We evaluate the implications of relaxing the Supplementary Leverage Ratio during the COVID-19 market disruption for bank balance sheet composition and credit provision. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to causally identify the effect of the SLR regulation change on bank level outcomes. We find that the relaxation may have eased Treasury market liquidity by allowing banks to hold modestly greater inventories of Treasuries, and further allowed for a significant expansion of traditional bank credit. Our findings suggest that this risk-invariant leverage ratio was binding for banks during COVID-19, weakly affected bank liquidity provision in Treasury markets, and strongly affected banks' portfolio composition across asset classes, amounting to a shift of banks' loan supply schedules. Thus, we highlight that countercyclical relaxation of uniform leverage constraints can increase bank credit provision during economic downturns. Given the binding nature of the SLR, the relaxation of this constraint may be more effective than other countercyclical measures in allowing banks to extend credit. Covid Economics 72, 18 March 2021: 1-25 1 We thank Olivier Darmouni, Yiming Ma, and Kairong Xiao for helpful comments. 2 PhD Candidate in Finance and Economics, Finance Division, Columbia Business School. 3 PhD Candidate in Finance and Economics, Finance Division, Columbia Business School. Copyright: Naz Koont and Stefan Walz COVID ECONOMICS VETTED AND REAL-TIME PAPERS 2 I. Introduction Bank capitalization has been a key area of regulatory focus following the Global Finan- cial Crisis of 2008, as policy makers aim to facilitate bank lending while limiting excessive risk taking. In this paper, we provide the first evidence that the countercyclical relaxation of bank capital requirements during the COVID-19 crisis allowed banks to extend new credit to the economy. We do so by examining the effects of the