Purpose - Actions of incumbent politicians and firms' managers during election years have been cited as sources of many problems that afflict economies and business entities. Given the controversies surrounding the impact of elections on firms' soundness, this paper poses a question of whether...

This paper examines the role of collateral in "sudden stop" models that feature occasionally binding constraints and endogenous growth. We show how different assumptions regarding the nature and valuation of collateral alter the dynamics of crisis episodes and the welfare costs of pecuniary...