The research agenda of Sjoerd van Bekkum focuses on changes in the supply of credit that lubricates the economy, with a particular focus more recently on household finance. Recent crises have demonstrated how economically important an uninterrupted supply of credit is, and Van Bekkum has studied several ways in which the availability of credit may expand at times, and – often suddenly – disappear at others. The Chair allows Van Bekkum to further study how these changes relate to the financial industry, nonfinancial firms, and/or individual households.
Van Bekkum, who completed his PhD in 2010 (Tinbergen Institute, Erasmus School of Economics), has published in internationally recognized journals including the Review of Financial Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Journal of Financial & Quantitative Analysis. His solo-authored JFQA paper on “Inside Debt and Bank Risk” stands out as an important paper on how to compensate bank CEOs. Van Bekkum shows that, when bank CEOs receive more deferred compensation such as pensions (relative to bonuses, stocks, and options), they make more conservative funding and lending decisions. His RFS paper “Does a Larger Menu Increase Appetite? Collateral Eligibility and Credit Supply” presents causal evidence that subtle changes in the European Central Bank’s monetary policy framework have led to more mortgage lending by Dutch banks, against cheaper interest rates. This and other work was presented at many academic conferences such as several prestigious AFA, EFA, and FIRS meetings, and at workshops organised by the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the International Monetary Fund.