I discuss some of the challenges and possible responses of the economics and finance profession following the 2008-2009 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic. I do this in the context of three examples. The first example draws on the Bank of England’s forward guidance on interest rates by...

We draw on a comprehensive set of data of all registered firms in Thailand to examine whether firm size affects the relation between leverage and operating performance during the global financial crisis of 2007–2009. From a data set of 496,430 firm-year observations of a sample of 170,013...

This paper examines five possible explanations for the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009, using data for the United States and the eurozone. Of these five hypotheses, four are not supported by the data, while the fifth appears reasonable.

This paper investigates the impact of macroeconomic and monetary news on U.S. Government bond rate level and volatility. Specifically, it checks if these news affect differently interest rate level and volatility during "stable" and "unstable" periods. "Unstable" periods correspond to the...

The last few years have seen a significant re-evaluation of the models used to analyze crises in emerging markets. Recent models typically stress financial constraints or distorted financial incentives. While this certainly represents progress, these models share a weakness with the earlier...

The last few years have seen a significant re-evaluation of the models used to analyze crises in emerging markets. Recent models typically stress financial constraints or distorted financial incentives. While this certainly represents progress, these models share a weakness with the earlier...

Walter Bagehot's putative principles of lending in liquidity crises — to lend freely to solvent banks with good collateral but at penalty rates — have served as a theoretical basis for thinking about the lender of last resort for close to 100 years, while simultaneously providing...