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...

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...

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...

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...

In this paper, we analyse whether bank owners or bank managers were the driving force behind the risks incurred in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007/2008. We show that owner controlled banks had higher profits in the years before the crisis, and incurred larger losses and were more likely...

The paper analyzes Information Technology (IT) governance disclosure on a sample of the major 20 EU banks (from Italy, Germany, France and Spain) to observe if, how and where banks report on their IT governance issues. Since IT governance (like other aspects of banking business) can be...

In this paper, we analyse whether bank owners or bank managers were the driving force behind the risks incurred in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007/2008. We show that owner controlled banks had higher profits in the years before the crisis, and incurred larger losses and were more likely...