This study examines the emergence of financial stability as a key police objective. It discusses the underlying trends in the financial system, as well as the role of finance in relation to money, the real economy and public policy. Financial stability is defined in terms of its ability to help...

The crisis has demonstrated that the ability of banks to absorb shocks needs to be strengthened. The financial tensions that have emerged repeatedly since 2007 could assume such serious proportions because the exposure of the banks was too high and too risky in relation to their capital...

This paper analyses investment strategies of three types of institutional investors pension funds, life insurers and non-life insurers over the period 1999-2005. We use balance sheet and cash flow data, including purchases and sales of equity, fixed income and real estate. We trace asset...

We investigate the determinants of Dutch households' preferences for income redistribution, using survey data. Our results show that support for redistributive policies is related to self-interest, exposure to misfortune and risk-aversion. In addition, people who believe that prosperity is...

This paper examines the financial behaviour of 77 Dutch pension funds during 2002-2005. Using microdata, we investigate differences across various types of funds. Both the asset mix and the degree of home bias are related to the size of pension funds: large institutions invest more in equity and...

We investigate the capital structure of 350 Dutch insurers during the period 1995-2005. Our main findings are: (1) a small company size, a mutual organisation, high profitability, large equity investments, and being a fire insurer, all contribute to higher solvency margins; (2) minimum solvency...

Using area-wide data, we perform a VAR analysis to simulate the responses of inflation and real output following monetary shocks in the EMU. We find that short-term interest rate shocks have a significant impact on real activity, but hardly on prices. M3 shows a perverse short-term response to a...

In this paper the relationship between stock prices and house prices is analysed for six countries over the years 1976-2001. We find that both asset prices show a positive long-term relationship, which can partly be explained by common macro-economic factors such as credit, consumption and...

This paper analyses the impact of monetary shocks on bank lending in Germany. We follow a cross-sectoral approach by looking at six different banking groups. In general, smaller bankshold a larger buffer of liquid assets which they can use to offset monetary shocks. In addition, the response of...

For a panel of 20 industrialized countries from 1970 through 2002,we analyze the role of financial variables in economic cycles. We focus on equity busts, which are considered a proxy for downward revisions of economic prospects. Our empirical findings provide support for financial accelerator...