摘要:This paper investigates how government bond purchases
affect leverage-constrained banks and non-financial firms by
utilizing a stochastic general equilibrium model. My results
indicate that government bond purchases not only reduce nonfinancial
firms’ borrowing costs, amplified through a reduction
in expected defaults, but also lower banks’ profit margins. In an
economy in which loans priced at par dominate in banks’ balance
sheets—as a reflection of the euro area’s structure—the
leverage constraint of non-financial firms is relaxed while that
of banks tightens. I show that the leverage constraint in the
non-financial sector plays an essential role in transmitting the
impulses of government bond purchases to the real economy.
In a bank-financed economy, this channel mainly controls the
positive impulse on output and inflation following from government
bond purchases, although the soundness of the financial
sector deteriorates. This paper adds a new perspective to the
discussion regarding the efficacy of government bond purchases
as a policy tool.