This paper presents a search-theoretic model where middlemen can emerge endogenously to intermediate between ex ante homogeneous buyers and sellers in the presence of coordination frictions. Middlemen set price to compete in the market, and hold an inventory to provide a high matching service. I...

The function of legal rules as technical instruments of social organisation and how to make them work effectively has become an increasingly importance focus of attention for those interested in regulation. This essay examines the financial regulation in the UK and in particular the regulatory...

This paper reviews the causes of recent banking crises, particularly in the United States. The paper argues that to the extent banks are perceived to be "special," it is primarily because of poorly designed special public policies, particularly safety nets, rather than their inherent...

A liberalized, sophisticated financial system, with a premium placed on the possibility of exit, is a fragile financial system. That fragility is manifest in liquidity crises, some of which have substantial reverberations in reduced real output; in risk aversion in the private sector which...

Given all the talk of regulatory convergence in financial markets, one would think that good data would be available regarding the actual intensity of financial regulation in developed countries as well as a robust literature about how to determine the optimal level of regulatory intensity for...

EU enlargement rests on the proven success of European unification. European monetary integration and the introduction of euro are probably the best examples of integration. The EU financial sector has been going through a large restructuring program in the last decades. There was a continuous...

This paper examines the consequences of the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999 for the structure of the U.S. financial services industry. We ask how the industry may evolve as this new legislation interacts with the consolidation trend already under way, what types of mergers are most...

This paper assesses empirically two theories of why legal origin influences financial development. The political channel stresses that legal traditions differ in the priority they give to the rights of individual investors vis-a-vis the state and this has repercussions for financial development....

Johnson, McMillan and Woodruff (2002) examine the relative importance of property rights and external finance in several Eastern European countries, and find property rights to be overwhelmingly important, while external finance explains very little of firm reinvestment. McMillan and Woodruff...

This paper considers bankruptcy law design in a setting that is appropriate for entrepreneurial firms. These firms are characterized by a dependence on an owner-manager who is essential to the firm and must be given incentive through an ownership stake to maximize the value of the project. The...