"This paper examines the implications of bank activity and short-term funding strategies for bank risk and returns … using an international sample of 1,334 banks in 101 countries leading up to the 2007 financial crisis. Expansion into non …-interest income generating activities such as trading increases the rate of return on assets, and it may offer some risk …

where the politician-banker phenomenon is more prevalent have higher corruption and more powerful yet less accountable … governments, but not better functioning financial systems. Regulation becomes more pro-banker where this happens more often …. Furthermore, a higher fraction of the rents that are created accrue to bankers, former politicians are not more likely to be …

Morocco charted its own distinctive path of power sector reform. It selectively introduced private sector participation … through this selective approach to reform have come somewhat at the expense of the financial viability of the incumbent …

The challenge of power sector reform in the Arab Republic of Egypt has long been dominated by extremely high subsidies … pressure in 2014 when energy subsidies reached 6.8 percent of gross domestic product. Since then, the reform process has been …

ahead of other elements may limit the market effectiveness and even make subsequent reform steps more difficult …

Two successive waves of reform have fundamentally altered the structure and organization of Kenya's vibrant power …-beginning in 2002 and led by domestic reform champions-the thrust of first-wave reforms was continued, with the strengthening of … independent regulation, partial privatization of the generation company (KenGen), and establishment of complementary entities …

benefits of reform from materializing until much later. The failed first attempt with the Bujagali Hydropower independent power … substantial improvements in operational efficiency and accelerating service coverage. Although the reform model was eventually …

Pakistan's power sector underwent a substantial, if protracted, reform process. Beginning with an independent power … and frequent blackouts. At the heart of the impasse is the so-called "circular debt" crisis, whereby distribution …

The Philippines power sector underwent a substantial and largely complete reform process. Following a severe shortage … of supply in the late 1980s and the Asian Financial crisis of 1997, which made the dollar-denominated debt of the … National Power Corporation extremely burdensome, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act was passed in 2001. This was intended …

one- and two-year lags between media coverage and reform implementation. To achieve this objective, the study put together … reform. Second, countries with greater media coverage of Doing Business indicators tend to have higher numbers of implemented …