Social capital is a key factor affecting the functioning of financial markets (Guiso, Sapienza and Zingales, 2004). However, the estimation of the effect of social capital on credit markets is notoriously difficult. In this paper we exploit the recent Lehman Brothers crisis and a rich dataset to...

On the 29 of June 2009, the Pope Benedict XVIth published Caritas in Veritate, his third encyclical letter. It was addressed to the clergy but also to “lay faithful and all people of good will”. In the two papers assembled here under one single title, the author enters in dialogue with the...

The main objective of this paper is to present a reading of The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin in the context of the financial crisis, in particular, reflect from a few fragments of Benjamin's work appear to lie around a Black Swan. The recovery of the fragments of The Arcades seems...

Die Wurzeln des im Rahmen der aktuellen Krise verlorenen Vertrauens sassen nicht tief. Im Gegenteil war auch das scheinbare Funktionieren der Finanzmaerkte gepraegt von einem tief sitzenden, kaschierten Vertrauensverlust und von einer tautologisch „begruendeten“ Vertrauensillusion....

This paper compares the resilience of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) funds with that of conventional funds towards the global financial crisis by using an event study methodology. Taking the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers as the particular event, we estimated the average cumulative...

In 1997 the new Labour government launched major initiatives in the area of financial regulation, setting up the Financial Services Authority as a comprehensive regulatory body, supported by the legislative framework of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000. We evaluate the Labour...

This paper analyzes the evolution of the Romanian banking system during 2007 - 2010 compared to the same segment of financial market dynamics in the Member States. Also seeks to detect the effects of the global financial and economic crisis on lending activity, the management of liquidity risk...

"Everybody talks about financial innovation, but (almost) nobody empirically tests hypotheses about it." Frame and White (2004) The financial turmoil from 2007 onwards has spurred renewed debates on the "bright" and "dark" sides of financial innovation. Using bank-, industry- and country-level...