The development of government bond markets and, in particular, their currency composition have recently received much interest, partly because of their relation with financial crises. The authors study the determinants of the size and currency composition of government bond markets for a panel...

Laeven, Klingebiel, and Kroszner investigate the link between financial crises and industry growth. They analyze data from 19 industrial and developing countries that have experienced financial crises during the past 30 years to investigate how financial crises affect sectors dependent on...

Few areas of the world have escaped significant losses from episodes of bank insolvency. Bank insolvency is more costly in the developing world, where losses represent a greater share of income. The authors present data on bank insolvency episodes since the late 1970s. This new database can be...

During a crisis of confidence, announcements of deposit guarantees may give market participants short-term comfort. But stock market responses show that using public funds for bank bailouts is not a credible way to restore the health of the financial sector.The East Asian crisis began in...

Claessens, Klingebiel, and Laeven analyze the role of institutions in resolving systemic banking crises for a broad sample of countries. Banking crises are fiscally costly, especially when policies like substantial liquidity support, explicit government guarantees on financial institutions'...

The paper analyzes the provision of electronic financial services in countries, the impact of e-finance on the financial systems, and the leapfrogging opportunities for emerging markets. The authors address new policy issues and the role of government intervention in the light of these...

Countries that have experienced banking crises have adopted one of two distinct approaches toward the resolution of nonperforming assets - a centralized or a decentralized solution. A centralized approach entails setting up a government agency - an asset management company - with the full...