This paper investigates how the integration of local banking markets affects the credit and economic cycle of local economies by using both a data set on the branch network of nationwide city banks and a prefecture-level panel data set on the formation and collapse of the real estate bubble in...

Finding the causal effects of liquidity shocks on credit supply is complicated by the endogenous relation between loan demand and liquidity position of banks. This paper attempts to overcome this problem by exploiting, as a natural experiment, the exogenous deposit outflow prompted by the...

This paper exploits the international transmission of business cycles to examine the prevalence of attribution error in economic voting in a large panel of countries from 1990-2009. We find that voters, on average, exhibit a strong tendency to oust incumbent governments during an economic...

The recent financial turmoil highlights the incentive of highly leveraged financial institutions to take excessive risk, given the protection of limited liability. During the nineteenth and early twentieth century, many banks operated under liability rules which obligated shareholders to bear...

We investigate the economic impacts of bank taxation on the value of banks and that of borrowing firms, exploiting the surprise announcement of a tax by the Tokyo metropolitan government as a natural experiment. We find that the tax announcement had broad effects on the share prices of banks,...

Beginning in 2000, Japan’s government-owned postal saving system experienced a rapid outflow of funds as a large number of 10-year fixed-rate Postal Saving Certificates (PSCs) that had been purchased during the period of high interest rates in the early 1990s were maturing. This paper exploits...

This paper uses a unique data set on the spreads of subordinated debts issued by Japanese banks to investigate the presence of market monitoring. The results show that subordinated debt investors punished risky banks by requiring higher interest rates. Moreover, I find that the sensitivity of...

We examine the effects of party platforms on the economic opportunities of firms using a unique data set from a political prediction market in Taiwan, a country with two dominant parties whose political cleavage derives mainly from a single issue: the “One China Principle”. We find that...

This paper utilizes data on the presence of prominent individuals—that is, those with political (e.g., Members of Parliament) and aristocratic titles (e.g., lords)--on the boards of directors of English and Welsh banks from 1879-1909 to investigate whether the appointment of wellconnected...

This paper uses newly compiled data on Thai family businesses and their direct participation in politics to examine whether the political participation of family business yields private economic payoff. The paper finds that the political participation of family members is positively associated...