Among the cited historical cases of free banking is the National Law of Guaranteed Banks in Argentina (1887-1890), a system which proved to be unstable. This historical case presents relevant risks that are attributed to free banking, the absence of proper regulation and a formal lender of last...

We use tools from survival analysis to study the equilibrium probability of bank failure in a model with imperfect correlation in loan defaults where a systematic risk factor and idiosyncratic frailty factors govern borrower credit worth. We derive several surprising results: in equilibrium, a...