Slovenia is facing the legacy of a boom-bust cycle that has been compounded by weak corporate governance of state-owned banks. The levels of non-performing loans and capital adequacy ratios compare poorly in international perspective and may deteriorate further, which could require significant...

Low growth and huge current account deficits have characterised the Portuguese economy over the past decade. Easy credit in global markets, combined with the absence of incentives to limit loan-to-deposit ratios until recently, made it possible to finance internationally high levels of...

Dutch banks were put under heavy strains early in the global downturn and have comparatively weak financial buffers to cope with new shocks. Falling house prices have increased the share of households with negative home equity to nearly 35% for home-owning households and 40% for mortgage...

This paper investigates the determinants of trust in banking networks and, thus, identifies several forces determining the stabilizing effect of networks. Using a unique dataset of 249 German savings banks, the empirical results show that intense interaction with central coordinators supports...

This paper theoretically evaluates why profit–loss sharing (PLS) contracts in Islamic banking fails and its potential for improvement within the scope of the New Institutional Economic Theory (NIE). The objective of the evaluation is to draw conclusive theoretical arguments of whether Islamic...

Rising household debt has become a major policy concern in Korea. By the end of 2012, it had risen to 164% of disposable income, well above the OECD average of 133%. In addition to the economic impact and the risk to the financial sector, it raises social cohesion issues, as households with low...

This paper reviews the state of the banking sector in Europe. At the aggregate level, the empirical data suggest that the Baltics, Cyprus, Greece and Ireland, in particular, are hit by a strong decline in lending in the wake of the financial crisis. This deleveraging is mainly caused by a...

This paper examines the effectiveness of the wage-rise-contract policy as a strategic commitment in a two-stage quantity-settingmodel with two labor-managed income-per-worker-maximizing firms. The policy is a promise by the firm that it will announce acertain output level and a wage premium...

We analyze the differences between companies owned by private equity (PE) investors and similar public companies. We document that PE-owned companies use much stronger incentives for their top executives and have substantially higher debt levels. However, we find little evidence that PE-owned...