Alejandro Casado
Research Economist
Banco de España
Financial Stability and Macroprudential Policy Department
Biography
I am a Research Economist currently working at the Financial Stability and Macroprudential Policy Department of the Banco de España.
My field of expertise is empirical finance with a special interest in financial intermediation.
Interests
- Bank Specialization
- Credit Risk
- Deposit and Lending Competition
- Monetary Policy
- Credit Supply Shocks
- Debt Contracting
Education
- Ph.D. in Business Economics (2019-2023) Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
- Research Visit (2021-2023) Banco de España
- MS in Business and Finance (Research Master) (2017-2019) Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
- BA in Economics (2012-2016) Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Working Papers
Banks' Specialization and Private Information
Alejandro Casado and David Martinez-Miera
We document the geographical and sectoral specialization of banks’ lending activities using comprehensive data on the universe of loans to corporate borrowers in Spain. Our analysis highlights how specific sources of specialization are more relevant for evaluating different types of borrowers. Specifically, loans to micro and small firms exhibit reduced probabilities of non-performance in geographical markets where banks specialize, whereas loans to medium and large firms experience lower non-performance in sectors in which banks specialize. Crucially, we provide the first evidence of a direct link between bank specialization and enhanced banks’ private information by leveraging confidential data on banks’ private risk assessments reported to regulators. We corroborate our findings by analyzing the relevance of relationship lending, a well-established proxy for firm-specific private information.
Local Lending Specialization and Monetary Policy
Alejandro Casado and David Martinez-Miera
We provide evidence that bank loan supply reactions to monetary policy changes are market-specific, emphasizing the importance of banks’ local specialization. We analyze the U.S. mortgage market and find that when monetary policy eases, banks increase new mortgage lending growth more in markets in which they are geographically specialized relative to other markets and banks. This holds after controlling for local lending opportunities and (unobservable) bank differences. Further empirical findings, supported by a simple model, suggest that banks face market-specific differences in lending advantages, related to market-specific information, leading them to exhibit different reactions to monetary policy changes. We document the aggregate effects of this geographical specialization channel both at the county level on mortgage supply and house price growth, as well as at the bank level on average specialization growth. Our study underscores the relevance of banks’ local specialization in shaping the transmission of monetary policy.
Best Doctoral Paper Award at the FMARC Conference (2023)
The Effect of Disclosure Deregulation on Market-Wide Credit Default
Alejandro Casado and Antonio Moreta
We study the effects of a disclosure deregulation reform in Spain on market-wide credit default, where a market is defined at the local industry level. The reform allows treated firms to provide abbreviated, rather than detailed, financial statements. Our analysis reveals significant direct effects of the reform at the firm level: deregulated firms disclose less detailed financial statements and default more on their credit. However, while the increase in credit default flows through to the market level, our evidence suggests that untreated firms reacted by providing more detailed financial statements voluntarily, likely attenuating the direct effects of the reform. Further analyses support that the riskier credit markets result from a decline in market-wide banking competition. Our findings highlight the general equilibrium effects of disclosure reforms, particularly pointing to significant externalities in credit markets.
Deposit Market Competition and (Low) Monetary Policy Rates
Alejandro Casado and David Martinez-Miera
We analyze how the level of monetary policy rates affects the relevance of deposit market competition for the transmission of monetary policy. We find that following a monetary policy tightening when interest rates are sufficiently low (high), banks’ branches located in concentrated deposit markets experience an increase (decrease) in deposit quantities relative to branches of the same bank located in competitive markets. We also find how this differential effect translates partially into the lending markets, but do not find a differential effect in the labour market (wages and employment). These results suggest that monetary policy transmission channels may work differently when interest rates are low consistent with the presence of zero lower bound constraints in the deposit market.
Firms’ Financial Reporting Quality and Banks’ Shock Transmission
Alejandro Casado, Nadia Lavín, David Martinez-Miera, Antonio Moreta, and Irene Pablos
We highlight the role of firms’ financial reporting quality in the transmission of bank credit supply shocks to the economy. We exploit a large dataset of all corporate loans in Spain over 2009-2019 which allows us to identify firm-year bank credit supply shocks by accounting for time-varying firm heterogeneity in loan demand. We find that after an adverse bank credit supply shock, firms with lower financial reporting quality experience a sharper contraction in bank credit compared to firms with higher financial reporting quality. Further, such firms are unable to fully substitute the additional drop in bank credit with alternative financing sources, resulting in a higher decrease in their investment and asset growth. These results are amplified for financially constrained firms. Our findings suggest that financial reporting quality is related to lower information frictions between firms and capital providers.
Policy Writing
2023-2025
Autumn 2023, Spring 2024, Autumn 2024, Spring 2025
October 2017
Results of PIRLS for Students in Bilingual Studies
Alejandro Casado, María Luengo, and Almudena Sevilla
September 2016
Desajuste en Competencias Entre la Oferta y la Demanda de Trabajo en España
Alejandro Casado and Sergio Puente
Teaching
Average instructor rating: 4.77/5
Fall Term 2021
Bank Management
Instructor. In-person: Teaching Survey: 4.96/5
Diploma: Top 5 teaching assistant award for 2021/2022, certified by the Department Head.
Fall Term 2020
Bank Management
Instructor. On-line (90 students): Teaching Survey: 5/5 and 4.79/5.
Diploma: Top 5 teaching assistant award for 2020/2021, certified by the Department Head.
Fall Term 2019
Bank Management
Instructor. In-person: Teaching Survey: 4.77/5 and 4.48/5.
Diploma: Top 5 teaching assistant award for 2019/2020, certified by the Department Head.
Spring Term 2019
Financial Management
Teaching Assistant. In-person: Teaching Survey: 4.71/5 and 4.67/5.
Diploma: Top 5 teaching assistant award for 2018/2019, certified by the Department Head.
Anonymous Student Testimonials
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