This paper analyzes firms' difficulties in accessing credit before and during the crisis, by focusing on two of their characteristics: financial fragility and growth prospects. Our econometric analysis indicates that fragile financial conditions were associated with a much higher than average...

During the ongoing financial crisis the analysis of similar historical crises has gained more and more attention among economic researchers and forecasters. Existing studies, however, do not tackle the immense heterogeneity that is present in cross-country samples in a formal and consistent way....

This paper investigates the impact of the history of crises on macroeconomic performance. We first study the impact of past banking crises on the probability of a future banking crisis. Applying data for 1980 - 2010 for all countries for which the required information is available, controlling...

1: Financial Crises: a Hardy Perennial -- 2: The Anatomy of a Typical Crisis.-3: Speculative Manias -- 4: Fueling the Flames: the Expansion of Credit -- 5: The Critical Stage – When the Bubble Is About To Pop -- 6: Bernie Madoff: Frauds, Swindles, and the Credit Cycle -- 7: Domestic Contagion:...