I study economies where banks do not fully internalize the social costs of default, which distorts their lending decisions. In all these economies, a common general equilibrium effect leads to aggregate over-investment. As a result, under laissez-faire, crises are too frequent and too costly...

This study highlights some deficiencies of the stock markets’ risk legislation framework, and particularly the CESR (2010) guidelines. We show that the current legislative framework fails to offer incentives to financial management companies to invest in advanced models for more representative...

Recent studies suggest liquidity regulation contributed to the rise in excess reserves, but capital regulations may matter, too. We use a simple model to show that banks may tilt portfolios away from higher risk-weighted assets like loans and toward lower risk-weighted assets like reserves and...

Liquidity risk has received increased attention recently, especially in light of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, when banks' extensive reliance on short-term funding, maturity mismatches between assets and liabilities, and insufficient liquidity buffers made them quite susceptible to liquidity...

Common explanations for the observed rise in excess bank reserves include payment of interest on reserves and liquidity regulations, but capital regulations may also matter. We show that a profit maximizing bank substitutes from higher risk-weight loans to lower risk-weight reserves and...

We explore the effects of ownership concentration on the risk-taking behavior of banks. Our analysis focuses on East Asian countries because these nations have successfully implemented the Basel standards and demonstrate a high degree of regulatory convergence. For the period from 2005 to 2009,...

This study investigates the associations among bank risk-taking, ownership concentration, and the recently-proposed standard for capital stability (Basel III). Consistent with theory, the evidence shows that a rise in ownership concentration by one standard deviation increases the extent of...

Regulators of financial institutions in most parts of the globe are making impressive achievement in terms of regulating the behavior of banks on the level of risk they can take in making investment decisions. Professionals in the finance industry have made a huge impact in trying to regulate...

The Basel capital is a “margin” requirement imposed by regulators to cushion banks against extreme falls in prices of assets held, and is often a function of value-at-risk (VaR). The way banks adjust their balance sheets to maintain the requirement is equivalent to leverage targeting that...