The supply chain of the real estate sector accounts for one fifth of Italian GDP; its importance for the banking system is even greater: lending to this sector accounts for more than one third of total loans to the private sector. The crisis in the construction and real estate sector started...

Guarantees play an important role in debt contracts. They alter the risk for the lender, transform borrowers� incentives and, possibly, modify the equilibrium allocation of financial resources. This paper studies the role of guarantees on bank loans, using a sample of over 50,000 individual...

Bank lending expanded rapidly in Italy in the second half of the 1980s and early 1990s. By contrast, in the four years 1993-96 it rose moderately, and in real terms it diminished. The paper addresses some questions in the light of these trends: Was there a structural change in firms’ demand...

Given the importance of banking intermediation, we investigate the determinants of the size of bank loans in 18 OECD countries in the period 1981-1997. The aim of the paper is to show that the ratio of government debt to GDP has a negative effect on the level of bank credit. Second, countries...