This paper aims to examine the underlying causes of the sharp reduction in bank lending, which in turn is highlighting some structural weaknesses of Italian firms and financial system. The structure of this paper is as follows. Section 1 introduces the paper. Section 2 analyzes some drivers of...

This paper analyzes the relationship between bank consolidation and the stability of the financial system within the United States. In particular, we compare mergers and acquisitions of banks during the 2008 financial crisis with those that occurred during stable market conditions in order to...

During normal times, strengthening the financial stability of banks is associated with contradictory effects on returns. In this paper, we establish that liquidity and capital ratios had a positive impact on bank returns during the first three years following the global financial crisis. Our...

Can a major financial crisis trigger changes in a bank’s risk-taking behavior? Using the 2008 Global Financial Crisis as a quasi-natural experiment and a difference-in-differences approach, I examine whether the worst crisis-hit Russian banks – the banks that have strong incentives to...

I test theories of the recent financial crisis by studying how banks' pre-crisis investments connect to their CEOs' beliefs. Using different proxies for beliefs, I find banks with larger housing investments and worse crisis performance had CEOs who were more optimistic ex ante. Banks with the...