Although the performance and privatization of transition banks have been widely studiedalready, little is known about their risk taking and risk management activities. We use a new EBRD survey data set of banks to examine risk taking by banks in the transition countries. We find no indication of...

In this paper we examine risk taking and risk management with the help of a new survey data set from EBRD. We do so in this paper with the familiar balance sheet and income data prepared by Bank Scope and also with information from the EBRD's 2005 survey of bank managers. We find no indication...

In this paper we examine the role of syndicated loan markets in financial market development in 24 European countries. We find credit spreads to be negatively related to market size in small markets and positively related in large financial markets. Syndicated loans play a different role in...

The paper explores how legal change affects lending behavior of banks in twelve transition economies of Central and Eastern Europe. In contrast to previous studies, we use bank level rather than aggregate data, which allows us to control for country level heterogeneity and analyze the effect of...

This paper provides a theoretical model that explains the empirical observation that foreign banks from industrialized countries tend to increase their involvement in emerging markets during periods characterized by instabilities. In this model, domestic banks have more 'soft' information about...

This paper explores how the legal environment affects bank behavior in 20 transition economies. Based on a newly constructed data set we find that banks' loan portfolio composition depends on the legal environment. If banks operate in a well-functioning legal environment they lend relatively...

This paper explores how the legal environment affects bank behavior in 20 transition economies. Based on a newly constructed data set we find that banks loan portfolio composition depends on the legal environment. If banks operate in a well-functioning legal environment they lend relatively more...

We use a quasi-experimental research design to examine the effect of model-based capital regulation introduced under the Basel II agreement on the pro-cyclicality of bank lending and firms' access to funds during a recession. In response to an exogenous shock to credit risk in the German...