Loan diversification is a typical mechanism used by financial institutions to minimize their portfolio risk. However, diversification might not always be beneficial in response to the complex task of monitoring credit risks and the associated incentives. For instance, a highly diversified bank...

Based on the information of Argentine banks during the period 1998-2005, this paper analyzes if the bank loan portfolio was efficient in the sense of prioritizing the productive sectors with higher growth and stability. The statistical and econometrical response of the study is an unequivocal...

Non-performing loans are an extremely relevant issue for central banks and for economic policy in general, as bank solvency and overall financial stability rely on the ability and willingness of borrowers to repay their debts. Based on annual information covering 1998-2005 from the credit bureau...

Working on a sample of OECD countries spanning the period 1970-2003, this paper contributes to the literature on the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle by making three main innovations: First, we estimate, for the first time, regressions between investment and saving at the institutional sector level...

The paper investigates the use of collateral in the Argentine banking system by exploiting a rich dataset administered by the Central Bank (Central de Deudores). The study focuses on commercial loans to firms with balance sheet information available over the 2001-2005 period. The first part...

This paper shows that a puzzling yet strong correlation exists between imports and exports. Cross-section and time-series analysis for the broadest possible country sample (159 countries over 1960-2006) attests to the robustness of this finding, even though causality is not explored in depth....

This paper analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of corporate self-financing from de perspective of corporative finance in order to evaluate its macroeconomic consequences. Specifically, a corporate self-financing coefficient is calculated for a group of 15 countries of OECD during the...