The bursting of the Japanese bubble economy in the early 1990s put the stage for a lasting low-, zero-, and negative-interest rate environment, which fundamentally changed the business environment for the Japanese commercial banks. On the income side, with interest margins becoming increasingly...

Supporters of the Austrian School of Economics and a number of empirical studies have claimed that the increasing number of "zombie" companies is a supply-side reason for the low growth rates in Europe. Often, these studies cite empirical findings for Japan to justify their claims, and conclude...

This paper presents an analysis of the impact of the Bank of Japan's low-interest rate policy on the banking sector in the wake of the 1998 Japanese financial crisis. We show how the low-cost liquidity provision as a means to stabilize banks has created a growing gap between deposits and loans...