As it evolves around the world, Social Security financed on pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis increasingly becomes a Ponzi scheme due to aging populations. The main objective of Social Security is to insure seniors against an uncertain life span. However, as the probability of being a net loser rises...

This paper traces the financial institution crisis of 2007-2008 to a breakdown in the incentives of regulators, supervisors, managers, and investors to perform adequate due diligence on securitized investments. Investors allowed their trust in the reputations of credit rating firms and the giant...

The U.S. mortgage loan foreclosure crisis has been called quot;the worst financial crisis since the great depression.quot; There are two distinct channels of influence of the subprime problem. The first is the rise in foreclosures that affects homeowners and the real estate industry most...

Pension systems in North Africa are facing a certain number of difficulties. We present in this paper the pension system's characteristics and organization in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. This work identifies the specificities, as well as the common problems, of each country's pension system....

We find that wealthier and more educated immigrants are more likely to make use of basic banking services and other formal financial services. Holding these (and other) factors constant, we find immigrants from countries with more effective institutions are more likely to have a relationship...

The incidence of deposit taxes has been connected to interesting questions in the theory of financial intermediation. Some researchers have found evidence supporting the notion that the deposits tax is borne by bank borrowers and that, therefore, bank loans are quot;unique.quot; Other studies...

In the U.S., corporate bankruptcies generally go through the court system for resolution, whereas bank failures are resolved by bank regulatory agencies. The goal of corporate bankruptcy is to maximize the value of the firm as a quot;going concernquot; in liquidation to the shareholders. In a...

Wealth is an important source of financial well-being and investment is an important vehicle to accumulate wealth. A large body of literature has focused on analyzing the systematic differences in wealth and investment behavior across gender and marital states. This paper provides a broad...

This paper investigates the dynamic and the determinants of banking industry efficiency in Latin America. Allocative, technical, pure technical and scale efficiencies are calculated and analyzed in each country. We find that Latin American bank managers have been using resources efficiently, but...

Existing literature has focused attention on the impact of Basel I and similar capital requirement regulations on developed countries where such regulations were found to be effective in increasing capital ratios and reducing portfolio credit risk of commercial banks. In the present study, we...