This paper discusses the relation between the financial structure and the determination of bank lending rates in Italy. It notes that the high degree of stickiness of bank lending rates observed in Italy in the past was related to constraints on competition within the banking and financial...

A study of the five countries most affected by the East Asian financial crisis - Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand -- shows that more than 60 percent of firms are illiquid and 30 percent are technically insolvent. Among solvent firms, about half are at...