In a recent paper, Geanakoplos and Fostel (2008) suggest that financial markets operate under three conditions: the normal economy, when the liquidity wedge is small and leverage is high; the anxious economy, when the liquidity wedge is big, leverage is curtailed and the general public is...

This paper reconsiders the formal estimation of bank risk using the variability of the profit function. In our model, point estimates of the variability of profits are derived from a model where this variability is endogenous to other bank characteristics, such as capital and liquidity. We...

Standard banking theory suggests that there exists an optimal level of credit risk that yields maximum bank profit. We identify the optimal level of risk-weighted assets that maximizes banks’ returns in the full sample of US banks over the period 1996–2011. We find that this optimal level is...

The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between banking sector reform and bank performance - measured in terms of efficiency, total factor productivity growth and net interest margin - accounting for the effects through competition and bank risk-taking. To this end, we develop an...

This note provides the first empirical assessment of the dynamic interrelation between government bond spreads and their associated credit default swaps (CDS). We use data for the Southern European countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain) that found themselves with a problematic public...

This paper analyses the relationship between board structure, in terms of board size and composition, and bank performance in terms of both cost and profit efficiency. Unlike previous studies, the present analysis is carried out within a stochastic frontier framework, while we use a suitable...

The three-equation New-Keynesian model advocated by Woodford (2003) as a self-contained system on which to base monetary policy analysis is shown to be inconsistent in the sense that its long-run static equilibrium solution implies that the interest rate is determined from two of the system’s...

This paper provides cross-country evidence that variations in bank regulatory policies result in differences in income distribution. In particular, the overall liberalization of banking systems decreases the Gini coefficient and the Theil index significantly. However, this effect fades away for...

This paper investigates the role of banking supervision in controlling bank risk. Banking supervision is measured in terms of enforcement outputs (i.e., on-site audits and sanctions). Our results show an inverted U-shaped relationship between on-site audits and bank risk, while the relationship...