This Paper explains both the onset of the financial crisis in 1998 and the striking economic recovery afterwards in Russia and other Former Soviet Union (FSU) economies. Before the crisis banks do not lend to the real sector of the economy, and firms use non-bank finance - including trade...

We investigate how bank competition affects the efficiency of credit allocation, using a model of spatial competition. Our analysis shows that bad loans are more likely the larger the number of banks competing for customers. We study further how many banks will be active if market entry is not...

The paper investigates those aspects of economic transformation and long-term economic development where financial institutions can and should make a contribution. It also investigates the financial services industry as a sector and tries to point out the conditions which can enable financial...

This paper focuses on some of the major problems of the Hungarian banking system and investigates the possible ways to deal with these problems. It discusses the issue of bank restructuring, concentrating on the large commercial banks for which direct or indirect state ownership is decisive....

We investigate whether information sharing among banks has affected credit market performance in the transition countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, using a large sample of firm-level data. Our estimates show that information sharing is associated with improved availability...

In the recent theoretical literature on lending risk, the common pool problem in multi-bank relationships has been analysed extensively. In this Paper we address this topic empirically, relying on a unique panel dataset that includes detailed credit-fie information on distressed lending...

We show that banks' cash flow exposure to interest rate risk, or income gap, plays a crucial role in their lending behavior following monetary policy shocks. In a first step, we show that the sensitivity of bank profits to interest rates increases significantly with their income gap, even when...

This Paper studies the relationship between residential property prices and lending in Hong Kong. This is an interesting topic for three reasons. First, swings in property prices have been extremely large and frequent in Hong Kong. Second, under the currency board regime, monetary policy cannot...

In this Paper, we examine bank lending decisions in an economy with spillover effects in the creation of new investment opportunities and asymmetric information in credit markets. We show that such features may lead to strategic considerations in the loan extension decision and in the pricing of...

We analyse the coordination problem in multi-creditor relationships empirically, relying on a unique panel data set that contains detailed credit-file information on distressed lending relationships in Germany, including information on creditor pools, a legal institution aiming at coordinating...