Search Results
Working Paper
Geopolitical Risk and Global Banking
How do banks respond to geopolitical risk, and is this response distinct from other macroeconomic risks? Using U.S. supervisory data and new geopolitical risk indices, we show that banks reduce cross-border lending to countries with elevated geopolitical risk but continue lending to those markets through foreign affiliatesâ unlike their response to other macro risks. Furthermore, banks reduce domestic lending when geopolitical risk rises abroad, especially when they operate foreign affiliates. A simple banking model in which geopolitical shocks feature expropriation risk can explain these ...
Working Paper
Measuring Geopolitical Risk
We present a monthly indicator of geopolitical risk based on a tally of newspaper articles covering geopolitical tensions, and examine its evolution and effects since 1985. The geopolitical risk (GPR) index spikes around the Gulf War, after 9/11, during the 2003 Iraq invasion, during the 2014 Russia-Ukraine crisis, and after the Paris terrorist attacks. High geopolitical risk leads to a decline in real activity, lower stock returns, and movements in capital flows away from emerging economies and towards advanced economies. When we decompose the index into threats and acts components, the ...
Working Paper
Taxonomy of Global Risk, Uncertainty, and Volatility Measures
A large number of measures for monitoring risk and uncertainty surrounding macroeconomic and financial outcomes have been proposed in the literature, and these measures are frequently used by market participants, policy makers, and researchers in their analyses. However, risk and uncertainty measures differ across multiple dimensions, including the method of calculation, the underlying outcome (that is, the asset price or macroeconomic variable), and the horizon at which they are calculated. Therefore, in this paper, we review the literature on global risk, uncertainty, and volatility ...
Working Paper
Geopolitical Risk and Global Banking
How do banks respond to geopolitical risk, and is this response distinct from other macroeconomic risks? Using U.S. supervisory data and new geopolitical risk indices, we show that banks reduce cross-border lending to countries with elevated geopolitical risk but continue lending to those markets through foreign affiliates—unlike their response to other macro risks. Furthermore, banks reduce domestic lending when geopolitical risk rises abroad, especially when they operate foreign affiliates. A simple banking model in which geopolitical shocks feature expropriation risk can explain these ...
Speech
The economic outlook: the ‘new normal’ is now: remarks at The Economic Club of New York, New York City
Remarks at The Economic Club of New York, New York City.
Report
How Firms’ Perceptions of Geopolitical Risk Affect Investment
Geopolitical risk has intensified in recent years, driven by events such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, escalating tensions between the United States and China, and conflicts in the Middle East. But how risky is the geopolitical landscape according to US firms? This brief presents a new index based on earnings call transcripts that reflects US firms’ perceptions of geopolitical risk and examines how those assessments affect their future investment, that is, their spending on long-term assets such as facilities, equipment, and technology.
Working Paper
Geopolitical Oil Price Risk and Economic Fluctuations
This paper studies the general equilibrium effects of time-varying geopolitical risk in the oil market by simultaneously modeling downside risk from disasters, oil storage and the endogenous determination of oil price and macroeconomic uncertainty in the global economy. Notwithstanding the attention geopolitical events in oil markets have attracted, we find that geopolitical oil price risk is not a major driver of global macroeconomic fluctuations. Even when allowing for the possibility of an unprecedented 20 percent drop in global oil production, it takes a large increase in the probability ...
Working Paper
Geopolitical Oil Price Risk and Economic Fluctuations
Market participants and policymakers are concerned about major oil production shortfalls driven by geopolitical events. Even when such events never materialize, unanticipated increases in the probability of a production shortfall may generate a surge in the price of oil and oil price uncertainty. We provide the first systematic account of the quantitative importance of time-varying geopolitical risk to oil production for the global economy. We show that a 20 percentage point increase in the probability of a 5% shortfall in oil production causes a 0.12% reduction in output. When considering a ...
Report
Securing Technological Leadership? The Cost of Export Controls on Firms
To safeguard its technological leadership, the U.S. has restricted domestic suppliers from exporting specific cutting-edge technologies to selected Chinese firms. Domestic firms affected by these export controls halt sales to Chinese customers, as intended, but struggle to establish new relations with alternative customers domestically or in politically aligned regions. As a result, domestic suppliers experience a $130 billion decline in market capitalization, along with reductions in profitability, employment, and bank lending. We also show how Chinese firms strategically respond to export ...
Report
How U.S. Bank Stock Prices Respond to Geopolitical Risk
Geopolitical risk has emerged as a central driver of global financial markets, with episodes such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and recent conflicts in the Middle East triggering sharp movements in asset prices and increases in market volatility. This brief examines how geopolitical risk affects U.S. bank valuations and which institutions are most vulnerable. Through cross-border lending, foreign subsidiaries, and trading activities, banks face multifaceted exposure to geopolitical risk that can affect their profitability via credit losses, disrupted funding markets, and altered fee ...