The paper analyzes how the removal of barriers to entry in banking affect loan competition, bank stability and economic welfare. We consider a model of spatial loan competition where a market that is served by less efficient banks is opened to entry by banks that are more efficient in screening...

The recent wave of mergers in the euro area raises the question, whether the increase in concentration has at least in part offset the increase in competition in European banking through deregulation. We test this question by estimating a simple Cournot model of bank pricing. We construct...

This paper addresses a very European issue, the consolidation of securities trading and settlement infrastructures. In a two-country model, we analyze welfare implications of different types of consolidation. We find that horizontal integration of settlement systems is better than vertical...

This paper tries to contribute to the discussion on the role of securities settlement infrastructures for financial integration in Europe. It presents a model that can explain a well-known stylized fact of securities settlement, the surprisingly high fees charged by central securities...

In a famous episode of financial history which lasted over eight years, the market for the future on the Bund moved entirely from LIFFE, a London-based derivatives exchange, to DTB, a Frankfurt-based exchange. This paper studies the determinants of the observed dynamics, using a novel panel...

We offer a theoretical framework to analyze corporate lending when loan officers must be incentivized to prospect for loans and to transmit the soft information they obtain in that process. We explore how this multi-task agency problem shapes loan officers' compensation, banks' use of soft...

We quantify the impact that central bank refinancing o perations a nd f unding f acilities had at reducing the banking sector's intrinsic fragility in the euro area in 2014-2019. We do so by constructing, estimating and calibrating a micro-structural model of imperfect competition in the banking...

We offer a theoretical framework to analyze corporate lending when loan officers must be incentivized to prospect for loans and to transmit the soft information they obtain in that process. We explore how this multi-task agency problem shapes loan officers' compensation, banks' use of soft...

This paper tries to contribute to the discussion on the role of securities settlement infrastructures for financial integration in Europe. It presents a model that can explain a well-known stylized fact of securities settlement, the surprisingly high fees charged by central securities...