This paper reviews the evolution of the Japanese banking sector and the development of the banking crisis in Japan in the context of "too big to fail." It describes the deterioration of the Japanese financial sector caused by the bad loan problems and the failure of policymakers to get a grip on...

Trade credit is one of the most important sources of short-term external finance for small firms. Previous literature has focused mainly on the substitution of bank loans for trade credit during monetary tightening among many firms, but in this paper we investigate the role of trade credit...

We study theoretically the possibility for the parties to efficiently resolve financial distress by contract as opposed to exclusively rely on state intervention. We characterize which financial contracts are optimal depending on investor protection against fraud, and how efficient is the...

A "shock therapy" might have different impacts between large and small firms. In this paper, we focus on the clients of two large failed Japanese banks - the Long-term Credit Bank of Japan (LTCB) and the Nippon Credit Bank (NCB). We first show that subsequent events after the bank failures...

We study a demand and supply model of judicial discretion in corporate bankruptcy. On the supply side, we assume that bankruptcy courts may be biased for debtors or creditors, and subject to career concerns. On the demand side, we assume that debtors (and creditors) can engage in forum shopping...

We investigate the cause of this banking crisis that has jeopardized the stability of the financial and economic system since the 1990s. Following Hanazaki and Horiuchi (2001), we argue that the deficiency of effective corporate governance of banks in Japan has caused inefficient management. Our...

We develop and test the hypothesis that private information incorporated into stock prices affects the structure of corporate boards. Stock price informativeness may be a complement to board monitoring, because the information revealed by prices can be used by directors to monitor management....

We argue that the size and composition of corporate boards are determined by tradeoffs involving the information that directors bring to boards versus the coordination costs and free rider problems associated with their additions to boards. Our hypotheses lead to predictions that firm size and...

The statistically typical form of the board of directors in a Russian joint-stock corporation can be characterized as an open managerial supervisory body with a balanced membership of executive corporate officers and outsider directors. In reality, however, there are only a very limited number...

After over a decade of sluggish economic growth accompanied by massive fiscal stimulus and government handouts (not unlike the response to the current global crisis) in the 1990s, it remains an open question whether and how Japanese firms have restructured their operations, and whether these...