This paper introduces a new database of financial reforms covering 91 economies over 1973–2005. It describes the content of the database, the information sources utilized, and the coding rules used to create an index of financial reform. It also compares the database with other measures of...

The paper studies the factors associated with the emergence of systemic banking crises in a large sample of developed and developing countries in 1980-94 using a multivariate logit econometric model. The results suggest that crises tend to erupt when the macroeconomic environment is weak,...

This paper studies under what circumstances creditworthy sovereign borrowers may be denied liquidity by rational creditors. It is shown that, when the creditor side of the market consists of many small investors, multiple rational expectations equilibria may exist. In one equilibrium, creditors'...