We examine short selling of equity exchange traded funds (ETFs) using the 2008 short-sale ban. Contrasting the previously documented contractions in bearish strategies during the ban, we find a significant increase in short sales of the largest, most liquid ETF, the S&P 500 Spider. We offer...

The recent financial crisis has shown that financial innovation can have devastating systemic impacts. International standard setters' and national regulators' response has been a global concerted effort to overhaul and tighten financial regulations. However, at a time of designing stricter...

Over the last two and a half decades, Luxembourg’s financial sector emerged as a leading international hub for asset management and investment funds and became a key contributor to growth. Diversification into new areas of financial asset management is continuing. However, changing financial...

The Asian financial crisis (1997 - 1998) and the global financial crisis (2007 - 2009) highlighted the potential value of financial regionalism, i.e., regional-level cooperation in financial policy. This paper argues that there is a mediating role for regional-level institutions of financial...

This paper discusses the regulatory role of certain international organizations in the financial services sector. The regulatory initiatives of some organizations such as the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) have been...

The existing international financial regulatory architecture is multifarious. Prevalent regulatory forums are numerous, with over-lapping spheres of activity, where all such forums share a lack of consolidated authority. Bodies like the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), Group of 20,...

We study the association between daily changes in short selling activity and financial stock prices during extreme events using TailCoR, a measure of tail correlation. For the largest European and US banks, as well as European insurers, we uncover a strong relation during exceptional (extreme)...

We investigate the effect of a stock market liberalization on industry growth in emerging markets. Consistent with the view that liberalization reduces financing constraints, we find that industries that are more externally dependent and face better growth opportunities grew faster following...

We identify current challenges for creating stable, yet efficient financial systems using lessons from recent and past crises. Reforms need to start from three tenets: adopting a system-wide perspective explicitly aimed at addressing market failures; understanding and incorporating into...