This paper studies the cyclical pattern of ex post markups in the banking system using balance-sheet data for a large set of countries. Markups are strongly countercyclical even after controlling for financial development, banking concentration, operational costs, inflation, and simultaneity or...

In den letzten Jahren drehte sich die geldpolitische Debatte vorrangig um Inflationssteuerung (inflation targeting) und Vermögenspreisblasen. Der vorliegende Text untersucht, wie solchen Blasen direkt begegnet werden kann, was die US-amerikanische Zentralbank, die Fed, bislang immer abgelehnt...

We document that governments whose local currency debt provides them with greater hedging benefits actually borrow more in foreign currency. We introduce two features into a government's debt portfolio choice problem to explain this finding: risk-averse lenders and lack of monetary policy...