The failure of financial institutions is often depicted as an externally-driven event in which certain triggers almost inevitably lead to the collapse of the firm. In contrast, this paper views institutional failure as a multistage process in which precautionary measures taken by the firm can...

In this paper, I suggest that the regulation of the financial system, especially if the aim is to prevent financial crises, should be focused on dealing with the consequences of the crises, not on trying to avoid their causes, although it may seem counterintuitive at first sight. Contrary to the...

In this paper, we ask how firms’ optimal debt structure responds to a change in the bankruptcy regime. While existing work shows that this relationship is dependent on the ex-ante liquidation value of a firm, we demonstrate that the ownership of lenders they are connected to also matters. We...

Banking system crises are complex events that in a short span of time can inflict extensive damage to banks themselves and to the external economy. The crisis liter- ature has so far identified a number of distinct effects or channels that can propagate distress contagiously both directly within...

We develop a new model for solvency contagion that can be used to quantify systemic risk in stress tests of financial networks. In contrast to many existing models it allows for the spread of contagion already before the point of default and hence can account for contagion due to distress and...

We develop a new model for solvency contagion that can be used to quantify systemic risk in stress tests of financial networks. In contrast to many existing models it allows for the spread of contagion already before the point of default and hence can account for contagion due to distress and...

We examine the mechanism through which a financial crisis affects the default risk of real economy firms. Specifically, firms with strong dependence on bank financing suffer higher increases in default risk than firms with no such dependence. Conversely, firms relying solely on financing from...