IS THERE A BANK LENDING CHANNEL OF MONETARY POLICY IN SELECTED MENA COUNTRIES? A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

This paper investigates whether or not there are differential effects of monetary policy across bank characteristics in some selected MENA countries namely Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia, to test for the presence of the bank lending channel (BLC). It uses a panel of micro bank balance sheet data from 1989 to 2007 to estimate the response of bank lending to changes in the monetary policy stance. The assumptions that the effect of a change in the monetary policy stance on a bank's lending activity depends on its capital, size, and on its liquidity base are tested. It has been found that the BLC is operative in almost all the countries. More specifically, the effects of bank characteristics in shaping the banks reaction to changes in the monetary policy are not uniform through the four countries.