We use a dynamic general equilibrium model featuring a banking sector to assess the interaction between macroprudential policy and monetary policy. We find that in “normal” times (when the economic cycle is driven by supply shocks) macroprudential policy generates only modest benefits for...

This paper reconstructs the series of the real returns on Italian equities, bank and Post Office deposits and long-term government bonds from 1860 to today. In the long-run the return on shares was much higher than that on government securities and also that on bank and Post Office deposits....

A striking feature of financial market behaviour in recent years has been the low level of price volatility over a wide range of financial assets and markets. The issue has attracted the attention of central bankers and financial regulators due to the potential implications for financial...

A striking feature of financial markets behaviour in recent years has been the low level of price volatility over a wide range of financial assets and markets. The issue has drawn the attention of central bankers and financial regulators due to the potential implications for financial stability....

We examine the informational effects of Mamp;As by investigating whether mergers improve banks' abilities to screen their borrowers. By exploiting a dataset in which we observe a measure of a borrower's default risk which the lenders observe only imperfectly, we find evidence of these...

Using a large database of private firms in Italy, we analyze the determinants of initial public offerings (IPOs) by comparing the ex ante and ex post characteristics of IPOs with those of private firms. The likelihood of an IPO is increasing in the company's size and the industry's...

This paper complements the analysis of the decision to go public contained in Pagano et al. (1995). We compare a larger set of Italian initial public offerings, including holding companies, with size-matched private companies. Even in this larger sample we find evidence that: (i) the new equity...

The general conclusion of the empirical literature is that in-market consolidation generates adverse price changes, harming consumers. Previous studies, however, look only at the short-run pricing impact of consolidation, ignoring effects that take longer to materialize. Using a database that...

We estimate the risk-adjusted performance of Italian equity funds, using both net and gross returns (i.e. net returns plus management fees), employing single factor and multi-factor benchmarks. With net returns the funds' performance is not significantly different from zero. With gross returns,...

The banking industry is consolidating at an accelerating pace, yet no conclusive results have emerged on the benefits of mergers and acquisitions. We analyze the Italian market, which is similar to other main European countries. By considering both acquisitions (i.e. the purchase of the majority...