This Closer Look illustrates the relation between executive compensation and organizational risk through the context of the financial crisis of 2008. We demonstrate that the incentives that bankers had to increase firm risk not only increased but increased substantially in the years preceding...

We analyze the trading of corporate insiders at leading financial institutions during the 2007 to 2009 financial crisis. We find strong evidence of a relation between political connections and informed trading during the period in which TARP funds were disbursed, and that the relation is most...

The bailouts of 2008–10 are the most recent in a long series of in-surance-like policies designed to limit the losses of those harmed by a crisis of some kind — but enacted after a crisis is under way. This paper analyzes the economics and politics of “crisis insurance” programs. The...

This paper examines how financial reporting regulations affect, and respond to, macroeconomic cycles by exploring a positive framework in which regulators subject to political pressures respond to cyclical demands by borrowers and lenders. We establish that, as economic conditions initially...

We continue to struggle with the legacy of the 2008 financial crisis, which was fundamentally caused by the incurrence of too much leverage on the part of all economic participants, including individuals, private firms and financial institutions, and governments. Despite continued high...

This is a Powerpoint presentation. The full article is also available on ssrn at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1924831U.S. policymakers often treat market competition as a panacea. However, in the case of mortgage securitization, policymakers' faith in competition is misplaced. Competitive mortgage...

This paper creates a simple model to describe the relationships between, banks, mortgage agencies, mortgage arrangers, and aspiring home owners. Using this model, the author illustrates how slight changes in real estate appreciation assumptions would reverberate through the collateralized debt...

This article explores how the theory of, “responsive regulation,” might guide historical inquiry into the American origins of the global financial crisis. Part I of the article briefly lays out some key ideas of the, “responsive regulation,” literature, and sketches how advocates of this...

The financial crisis is a multidimensional phenomenon. It involves private and state actors. It touches on private, public, national, constitutional, European, and international law. It is embedded in political visions of peace, prosperity, and solidarity that to a certain extent collide with...