Quadratic effect of bank size on capital regulation and risk-taking behavior: Evidence from the Central Europe

This paper primarily examines the quadratic effect of banks’ size on capital regulation and risk-taking behavior by using simultaneous equation approach. This paper primarily examines the quadratic effect of banks’ size on capital regulation and risk-taking behavior by using simultaneous equation approach. To carry out the objective, this study has been built on the two-stage least squares (2SLS) method for a dynamic unstructured panel data of 85 banks from the Central European banks for the period 2012–2017. There is a positive and significant relation between regulatory capital and risk. Also, higher risk-taking behavior causes banks to sacrifice their stability. This study also finds that there is a negative correlation between bank size and capital, indicating that larger the bank size lower tendency to keep capital more. In similar way, there is also a negative association between bank size and risk taking, indicating that lower tendency of taking risk by large banks and vice-versa. Finally, this paper can be used as a medium of information for the stakeholders of banks and others financial institutions of the country. There is a dearth of literature which was built on the quadratic effect of bank size regarding recent financial regulation and risk.