I test the hypothesis that the banks' exposure to liquidity risk contributed to the contraction of mortgage credit during the financial crisis of 2007-2009. I use micro-level data on mortgage loan applications to control for variation in demand conditions and find that lenders who relied less on...

The demand for cash balances of financial intermediaries that establish contractual liabilities with credit-sensitive customers is characterized. As stated by Merton, the success of the business activities of such firms crucially depends on their credit quality, and hence, they are obliged to...

The narrow banking proposal defining a class of safe and liquid assets (generally sovereign Government securities) for investments by weak banks, backed fully by demand liabilities (generally non-interest bearing deposits) has been considered as a means of deposit protection and a possible...

The paper traces the determinants of depositor discipline in Indian banking. Using data for the period 1997:1 to 2002:4, the findings reveal that, while bank-specific factors are dominant in case of state-owned banks, systemic variables tend to overwhelm bank-specific factors in explaining...

Policy debate with regard to financial intermediaries has focused on whether, and to what extent, governments should impose capital adequacy requirements on banks, or alternately, whether market forces could also ensure the stability of banking systems. The paper contributes to this debate by...

This paper extends Wheelock and Kumbhakar’s (1995) test for moral hazard in the Kansas deposit insurance system (1910-1920). This paper tests and finds evidence of omitted bank-specific effects. Estimates in Wheelock and Kumbhakar (1995), as a result, are biased. This paper introduces...

The capital structure of firms that face restrictions on liquidity (i.e. that cannot hedge continuously) is affected by the agency costs and moral-hazard implicit in the contracts they establish with stockholders and customers. It is demonstrated in this paper that then an optimal level of...

This study examines how the introduction of deposit insurance affects a banking system, using the deposit-insurance scheme introduced into the Russian banking system as a natural experiment. The fundamental research question is whether the introduction of deposit insurance leads to a more...

Through a focus on the ever increasing need to address information asymmetries, as well as reference to the uniqueness of the degree to which systemic risks are triggered in banking, this paper aims primarily to highlight reasons why government and central bank intervention are essential and...

Why do policies often seem to converge across countries at the same time? This question has been studied extensively in the diffusion literature. However, past research has not examined complex choice environments, especially where there are many alternatives. My paper aims to fill this gap in...