We describe and evaluate the measures taken by the U.S. government to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in September 2008. We begin by outlining the business model of these two firms and their role in the U.S. housing finance system. Our focus then turns to the sources of financial distress that...

We analyze the impact of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank) on corporate bond ratings issued by credit rating agencies (CRAs). We find no evidence that Dodd-Frank disciplines CRAs to provide more accurate and informative credit ratings. Instead, following...

We analyze empirically the role played by energy inflation as a determinant of downward corrections in house prices. Using a dataset for 18 OECD economies spanning the last four decades, we identify periods of downward house price adjustment and estimate conditional logit models to measure the...

The emergency measures for international investment passed to date can generally be grouped into three broad categories: measures designed to bolster the stability of the financial services industry, measures directed at the financial services industry but structured to increase the availability...

All pension systems have been affected by the financial and economic crisis, although in different ways. This paper analyses the effects of the crisis on pension systems and the resulting responses and changes, and offers a theoretical interpretation of these responses. This interpretation...

This paper describes the transmission of the recent financial crisis to Japan and compares the monetary policy reactions by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) with those during the 1990s, and with reactions by other major central banks. The paper first reviews the recent literature on the origins and...

Recent studies show that cash holdings cannot be considered a mere byproduct of corporate financial decision making but is an integral part of the explicit or implicit risk management policies of firms. This paper first gives an overview of the corporate finance literature from the past few...

This paper sheds light on the financial turmoil in the insurance sector from a Belgian supervisory perspective.3 An assessment is made of the main difficulties encountered by insurers and their supervisors during the development and acceleration of the financial crisis. Particular attention is...

SMEs have a different bank financing structure from that of large companies and thus do not enjoy the same financing conditions. This article examines the main factors that explain the interest rates on loans to SMEs and highlights the impact of the 2008 financial crisis on credit pricing policies.