This paper investigates contagion between bank risk and sovereign risk in Europe over the period 2006-2011. Since this period covers various stages of the banking and sovereign crisis, it offers a fertile ground to analyze bank/sovereign risk spillovers. We define contagion as excess...

A considerable number of Western European banks acquired banks in Central and Eastern Europe from the mid-1990s onwards. The question is whether or not this will improve the efficiency and profitability of the Central and Eastern European banking sectors. We test the relative strength of the...

The paper investigates the growth dynamics of the bank sectors in the OECD area over the period 1985-1994 and examines whether the structural financial reforms of the late 1980s have affected their growth path. Based on a test of Gibrat's law of proportionate effect, it is found that the 1985-89...