We document the development of the major international banks since the late nineties, analysing balance sheet data for 27 large and complex financial institutions. We argue that balance sheet expansion and business line diversification paved the way to the rise of the universal banking model....

We document the development of the major international banks since the late 1990s, analyzing balance-sheet data for 27 large and complex financial institutions. We argue that the balance-sheet expansion and business line diversification have paved the way for the rise of the universal banking...

We document the development of the major international banks since the late 1990s, analysing balance-sheet data for 27 large and complex financial institutions. We argue that balance-sheet expansion and business line diversification paved the way for the rise of the universal banking model. This...

Public debt levels in advanced economies have increased dramatically over recent years and they could put considerable upward pressure on market yields. Using a novel identification approach based on financial accounts and focusing on panel regressions for 18 advanced economies over the period...

This paper builds a unifying framework based on the theory of intertemporal consumption choices that brings together the limited participation-based explanation of the C-CAPM poor empirical performance and the transaction costs-based explanation of incomplete portfolios. Using the implications...

This paper proposes a test for the cost-based explanation of non-participation, by estimating a lower bound to the forgone gains of incomplete portfolios; these are in turn a lower bound to the costs that could rationalize non-participation in financial markets: high bounds would imply...

This paper estimates the determinants of households' choice between fixed rate (FRM) and adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) contracts, using the Bank of Italy's Survey of Household Income and Wealth. Contrary to the predictions of the theoretical literature, the analysis shows that most household...

This paper estimates a lower bound to the foregone gains of incomplete portfolios, which are in turn a lower bound to the (unobserved) entry costs that could rationalize non-participation to financial markets. My estimates provide a heuristic test for the cost-based explanation of limited...

This paper examines the literature on the relationship between stock and house prices and consumer spending. It reviews both the time-series studies and the microeconomic evidence. The time-series approach allows us to distinguish between short-run and long-run links between consumption, income...