This paper empirically analyzes the determinants of banks' systemic importance. In constructing a measure on the systemic importance of financial institutions we find that size is a leading determinant. This confirms the usual "Too big to fail" argument. Nevertheless, banks with size above a...

In view of preliminary lessons learnt from the global financial crisis since 2007, the paper develops a conceptual framework for the functional analysis of bank insolvency regimes and, against this background, analyses a package of reforms adopted in Germany in 2010

There are important truths in both the economic and the political arguments against TBTF institutions. However, there are also important limits to the truth of both arguments. I believe the limits are more central than the truths, and that if anything, Dodd-Frank has gone too far in focusing on...

The “too big to fail” institutions are a widespread concern, especially in the financial world. The author aims to determine if banking markets have a tendency in creating “too big to fail” institutions or if they created randomly, by uncorrelated determinants. The importance of the...

Using a synthetic control research design, we find that "living will" regulation increases a bank's annual cost of capital by 22 basis points, or 10 percent of total funding costs. This effect is stronger in banks that were measured as systemically important before the regulation’s...

Perhaps the leading critique of the Dodd-Frank Act is that it does too little to address the problem of too big to fail (“TBTF”) financial institutions. The critique of TBTF institutions has two main components. The economic argument focuses on a major moral hazard problem. The political...