Commodities have attracted considerable interest as a financial investment in recent years. This article discusses the factors behind their growing appeal and assesses the extent to which market characteristics, such as price volatility, have changed as a result. The feature concludes that...

This article examines developments in the syndicated loan markets during the financial crisis. The investigation of deal structures and purposes suggests that supply constraints aggravated the sharp decline of syndicated lending. An econometric analysis confirms that balance sheet constraints of...

Commodities have attracted considerable interest as a financial investment in recent years. This article discusses the factors behind their growing appeal and assesses the extent to which market characteristics, such as price volatility, have changed as a result. The feature concludes that...

Financial sector foreign direct investment in emerging market economies has surged over the past decade. While the benefits of heightened financial sector efficiency and better risk management are widely acknowledged, foreign ownership poses challenges for host countries due to the migration of...

In mid-September 2008, following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, international interbank markets froze and interbank lending beyond very short maturities virtually evaporated. Despite massive central bank support operations and purchases of key assets, many financial markets remained impaired...

During the 2007-2010 financial crisis, central banks accumulated a vast amount of experience in acting as lender of last resort. This paper reviews the various ways that central banks provided emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) during the crisis, and discusses issues for the design of ELA...

We integrate systemic financial instability in an empirical macroeconomic model for the euro area. We find that at times of widespread financial instability the macroeconomy functions fundamentally differently from tranquil times. We employ a richly specified Markov-Switching...

The debate on the sustainability of public finances is closely related to the analysis of the financial and macroeconomic consequences of government debt accumulation. Focusing on the USA, Germany and Italy over the 1983-2003 period, the central issue addressed in this paper is how the...