Insurance companies and pension funds are part of complex systems of private insurance and public social protection created to reduce the cost of economic hazards. In the current phase of the business cycle, with many OECD countries struggling with low economic growth, high public deficits and...

During the last decade or so a number of banking crises has occurred in both industrial and developing countries. Bank unsoundness is the focus of deep concerns for its possible interactions with macroeconomic instability. The potential size and severity of sovereign debt crises in integrated...