How integrated regional financial markets are in Europe? A first gauge based on active securitised loans

Abstract

Little is known about the degree of integration of financial markets at subnational level in the EU. is article provides new evidence on interregional loan flows within Europe. Building on the "Loan Level Initiative" launched by the ECB, with more than 35 million active loans, we built a georeferenced dataset of securitised loans, covering the period 2014-2018 and the 166 European NUTS 2 regions for which data exists. After reviewing the complex nature of the dataset, we explored its geographical dimension, and conduct an econometric analysis focused on explaining the regional demand for such loans, using different explanatory variables related to the geographic and the socio-economic features of the regions, and alternative panel data specifications (classic versus spatial econometric ones).