Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/206417 
Year of Publication: 
2019
Series/Report no.: 
ZEW Discussion Papers No. 19-046
Publisher: 
ZEW - Leibniz-Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung, Mannheim
Abstract: 
We study the political economy of allocation decisions within a major state investment bank. Our focus is the European Investment Bank (EIB) - "The Bank of the EU" - which is the largest multilateral lending (and borrowing) institution in the world. We collect (and make available) information on the regions of origin of about 500 national representatives at the EIB's Board of Directors - the decisive body for loan approvals - since its foundation in 1959 and show that a representative's appointment increases the probability of her sub-national region receiving a loan by about 17 percentage points. This "home-bias" effect is driven by large loans financing infrastructure projects. We provide several pieces of evidence, which are consistent with the hypothesis that home-bias lending may lead to resource misallocation, however we cannot conclusively demonstrate this case of economic ineffciency.
Subjects: 
Political economy of international organizations
Regional favoritism
European Investment Bank
European Union
JEL: 
D72
F53
G2
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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