We explore the link between bank holding companies’ hedging in derivatives and economic policy uncertainty using a newspaper-based index of policy uncertainty. Interestingly, we find that bank holding companies use derivatives less intensively in states where policy uncertainty is high (they hedge against homogenous (tradable) risk only); instead, they allocate their risk exposure via lending (thus increasing their credit risk). This finding is robust to different combinations of data samples, including the usage of only fourth quarter data, annual data, excluding bank mergers and acquisitions, and the results are robust to sample selection.

中文翻译：

---

政策不确定性，衍生品的使用：来自美国银行控股公司 (BHC) 的证据

我们使用基于报纸的政策不确定性指数探索银行控股公司对衍生品的对冲与经济政策不确定性之间的联系。有趣的是，我们发现银行控股公司在政策不确定性高的州较少使用衍生品（它们仅对冲同质（可交易）风险）；相反，他们通过贷款分配风险敞口（从而增加了信用风险）。这一发现对不同的数据样本组合具有稳健性，包括仅使用第四季度数据、年度数据，不包括银行并购，结果对样本选择具有稳健性。