This paper sets out the criteria that boards and supervisors should use to determine whether banks are governing risk correctly. First, boards have to set an overall risk target consistent with the overall return target. Second, the bank’s business model has to set a risk capacity and risk...

We examine the influence of cross country differences on debt maturity for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) using a sample of 3366 SMEs from 19 European countries. We analyze a country’s legal environment, institutional environment, banking structure and economic situation while...

We examine the influence of cross country differences on debt maturity for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) using a sample of 3366 SMEs from 19 European countries. We analyze a country's legal environment, institutional environment, banking structure and economic situation while...

The Internet has various economic functions and is a fundamental part of most economic activities and transactions. In this paper we apply a Dynamic Panel Data approach to study the impact of the Internet on labor productivity using data from 108 countries for the period 1995–2010. The results...

Working capital does not receive a great deal of attention in financial decision making. Perhaps this is because it involves investment and financing for the short term. Nevertheless, it is an important component of firm financial management. This study investigates the relationship between...

This paper shows that borrowers’ ethical behavior leads lending banks to loosen financing conditions when setting loan rates. We advance the banking literature by stressing that the previous financing loosening is enhanced when there is similarity of lenders and borrowers along their ethical...

Measuring economic uncertainty is challenging, but it is important for policymakers to address it, especially in countries for which there are virtually no uncertainty indices. This article proposes an index of economic uncertainty for Poland, EURQPL, based on Internet searches for specific...

La Porta et al. (1998) assign Pakistan, a common-law country, the maximum score of 5 for their anti-director rights index. Pakistan should therefore be a country with good investor protection attracting large amounts of investments. However, the reality could not be more different. Pakistan has...

This paper investigates market discipline by depositors in the Indonesian banking sector. Does depositor discipline fulfill its role in Indonesia? Does deposit insurance affect depositor behavior thereby imposing discipline on banks? These questions are empirically examined using panel data on...

This paper’s objective is to study the relationship between bank credit risk and financial performance and the contribution of risky lending to lower bank profitability and liquidity. The sample data comes from the Mergent Online database, which stores ownership, executive, and financial...