The long-run effects of risk: an equilibrium approach

Advanced economies tend to have large but unstable intermediation sectors. We employ a DSGE model with banks featuring limited liability to investigate how risk shocks in the financial sector affect long-run macroeconomic outcomes. With full deposit insurance, banks expand balance sheets when risk increases, leading to higher investment and output. With no deposit insurance, we observe substantial drops in long-run credit provision, investment, and output. These differences provide a novel argument in favor of deposit insurance. Finally, our welfare analysis finds that increased risk reduces welfare, except when there is full deposit insurance and deadweight costs are small.