The impact of banks' capital adequacy regulation on the economic system: an agent-based approach

Since the start of the financial crisis in 2007, the debate on the proper level leverage of financial institutions has been flourishing. The paper addresses such crucial issue within the Eurace artificial economy, by considering the effects that different choices of capital adequacy ratios for banks have on main economic indicators. The study also gives us the opportunity to examine the outcomes of the Eurace model so to discuss the nature of endogenous money, giving a contribution to a debate that has grown stronger over the last two decades. A set of 40 years long simulations have been performed and examined in the short (first five years), medium (the following 15 years) and long (the last 20 years) run. Results point out a non-trivial dependence of real economic variables such as the gross domestic product (GDP), the unemployment rate and the aggregate capital stock on banks' capital adequacy ratios; this dependence is in place due to the credit channel and varies significantly according to the chosen evaluation horizon. In general, while boosting the economy in the short run, regulations allowing for a high leverage of the banking system tend to be depressing in the medium and long run. Results also point out that the stock of money is driven by the demand for loans, therefore supporting the theory of endogenous nature of credit money