In this paper Belinda Tracey and I study the UK Help-to-Buy program. We show that relaxing the down payment constraint positively affects household consumption in addition to stimulating housing market activity. Our findings point to a further link between the housing market and household consumption that does not operate through the home purchase and housing wealth channels.

Cash is king as we argue in our new VoxEU blog (joint with Andi Joseph, Christiane Kneer and Jumana Saleheen). Companies with large amounts of cash on their balance sheet at the onset of the coronavirus crisis might enjoy a place in the sun and might emerge as winners in the post-Covid world.

I have been appointed Professor of Financial Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Starting from July 2020 I will combine my professorship with my position as a Senior Research Advisor at the Bank of England. You can find the announcement here.

In this paper Stijn Claessens and I exploit our Bank Ownership Database and we show that the presence and entry of a foreign bank has a positive impact on bilateral export and (to a lesser extent) import. We find evidence that indicates that foreign banks facilitate trade by reducing financial frictions for firms that (want to) trade.

In a new working paper: “All you need is cash: Corporate cash holdings and investment after the financial crisis” written jointly with Andi Joseph, Christiane Kneer and Jumana Saleheen  we show that having cash at hand allows firms to continue to invest during the crisis while industry rivals without cash have to divest. This gives cash-rich firms an important competitive edge that not only benefits them during the crisis but that gives them an advantage that lasts way beyond the crisis years. See also our blog on the topic.