We show that politics is at the root of the banks-sovereign nexus that exacerbated the Eurozone crisis. First, government-owned banks or banks with politicians in the board of directors display higher home bias in sovereign debt compared to privately-owned banks throughout the 2010-2013 period....

This paper seeks to inform about a feature of monetary policy that is largely overlooked, yet occupies a central role in modern monetary and financial systems, namely central bank collateral frameworks. Their importance can be understood by the observation that the money at the core of these...

In crisis times, insurance companies might feel the pressure to present a performance of their investment portfolios that is superior to the market, since investment portfolios back the claims of policyholders and serve as a signal for the claims' safety. I seek to show whether a stock market...