The paper investigates EU banks' profitability through the recent financial cycle using banklevel balance sheet and income statement data. We find that banks that were more successful at protecting their profits had a less pronounced deterioration in loan quality and a larger improvement in cost...

The paper investigates EU banks' profitability through the recent financial cycle using banklevelbalance sheet and income statement data. We find that banks that were more successfulat protecting their profits had a less pronounced deterioration in loan quality and a largerimprovement in cost...

Using a data set covering about 277,000 firms across 79 countries over the period 2004-11, this paper examines the evolution of firms' capital structure during the global financial crisis and its aftermath in 2010-11. The study finds that firm leverage and debt maturity declined in advanced...