Commercial real estate loans, in particular construction and land loans, have become a simultaneously one of the most significant sources of risk for regional and small banks while remaining one of the least understood and studied types of debt. The lack of loan-level data on land, construction,...

We use well being surveys to help explain the variance in obesity incidence across socioeconomic cohorts in the United States and Russia, with a focus on the role of norms. In the U.S., obesity is largely a poor people's problem, and the same groups suffer higher well being costs from being...

The global financial crisis has changed finance and the global economy forever. The debate over its causes and consequences has only just begun. This book brings together VoxEU.org columns written during the height of the storm from June to December 2008, offering a glimpse of history in the...