Initiated by the seminal work of Diamond/Dybvig (1983) and Diamond (1984), advances in the theory of financial intermediation have sharpened our understanding of the theoretical foundations of banks as special financial institutions. What makes them "unique" is the combination of accepting...

Individual financial systems can be understood as very specific configurations of certain keyelements. Often these configurations remain unchanged for decades. We hypothesize that thereis a specific relationship between key elements, namely that of complementarity. Thus,complementarity seems to...

The paper presents an empirical analysis of the alledged transformation of the financial systems in the three major European economies, France, Germany and the UK. Based on a unified data set developed on the basis of national accounts statistics, and employing a new and consistent method of...

[...]These political considerations may seem tangential to thesubject of price hedonics, but the events following fromGreenspan’s remark have linked the two issues. First, theSenate Finance Committee consulted a panel of experts, andthat panel reached a consensus supporting...

[...]The final force of change is the continual evolution of thedelivery channels through which financial services are offered.This has occurred in many ways and in several stages. First, theuse of postal services substituted for physical market presence;this was followed by increased use of...