In a dynamic model of moral hazard, competition can undermine prudent bank behavior. While capital-requirement regulation can induce prudent behavior, the policy yields Pareto-inefficient outcomes. Capital requirements reduce gambling incentives by putting bank equity at risk. However, they also...

Capital requirements are traditionally viewed as an effective form of prudential regulation - by increasing capital the bank internalizes more of the risk of its investment decisions. While the traditional view is accurate in the sense that capital requirement can be effective in combating moral...

This paper surveys the main policy debates on financial sector development. It provides a framework for understanding the main functions of the financial system, emphasizing informational problems and their efficient resolution through accumulation of reputational capital and the development of...

This paper asks the question under what circumstances banks have incentives to increase the deposit collection, when the deposit market is not fully penetrated, i.e. when there is low financial depths. We compare outcomes under a perfectly competitive deposit market with outcomes under financial...

A recent surge in natural disaster losses in the United States has created widespread disruptions in the property insurance market and generated calls for federal protection against natural disaster risk. This article examines the market for disaster insurance in the United States and finds that...

Why does venture capital work in some countries but not in others? This clinical study of the first German venture capital firm examines the difficulties of creating a venture capital market in a bank-based financial system. The analysis identifies the problem of creating appropriate governance...

This paper provides a new explanation for the use of convertible securities in venture capital, which is based on the trade-off between acquisition or IPOs. A key property of convertible preferred equity is that it allocates different cash flow rights, depending on whether exit occurs by...

Most theories of the firm ignore the entrepreneurial process of how the various resources of the firm are combined in the first place. This paper examines the process of how an entrepreneur obtains commitments from multiple resource providers to create a new venture. Resource providers may be...