Financial structure is an important determinant of the efficiency and stability of financial systems and the channels through which monetary policy is transmitted. We document the substantial differences in the financial systems of the euro area, the UK, the USA, Japan, and non-Japan Asia. The...

In a financial market where traders are risk averse and short lived, and prices are noisy, asset prices today depend on the average expectation today of tomorrow's price. Thus (iterating this relationship) the date 1 price equals the date 1 average expectation of the date 2 average expectation...

Traditional finance theory based on the assumptions of symmetric information and perfect and competitive markets has provided many important insights. These include the Modigliani and Miller Theorems, the CAPM, the Efficient Markets Hypothesis and continuous time finance. However, many empirical...

Competition policy in the banking sector is complicated by the necessity of maintaining financial stability. Greater competition may be good for (static) efficiency, but bad for financial stability. From the point of view of welfare economics, the relevant question is: what are the efficient...

This article considers the role of reputation in a competitive market where product quality is unobservable. It is shown, among other things, that there can exist equilibria where price is equal to average cost but greater than marginal cost. No. firm cuts its price because this would make it...

Competition policy in the banking sector is complicated by the necessity of maintaining financial stability. Greater competition may be good for (static) efficiency, but bad for financial stability. From the point of view of welfare economics, the relevant question is: what are the efficient...

We review some recent research that explores the relationship between asset-price volatility and financial fragility when markets and contracts are incomplete. (JEL: E5, G2) Copyright (c) 2005 The European Economic Association.