Recent empirical findings by Elsas (2005) and Degryse and Ongena (2007) document a U-shaped effect of market concentration on relationship lending which cannot be easily accommodated by the investment and strategic theories of relationship lending. In this paper, we suggest that this...

This paper examines how international remittances are affected by structural characteristics, macroeconomic conditions, and adverse shocks in recipient economies. We exploit a novel, rich panel data set, covering bilateral remittances from 103 Italian provinces to seventy-nine developing...

A growing body of research is focusing on banking organizational issues, emphasizing the difficulties encountered by hierarchically organized banks in lending to informationally opaque borrowers. While the two extreme cases of hierarchical and non-hierarchical organizations are typically...

The paper investigates the relationship between external debt and economic growth, focusing on the role played by the policy and institutional framework. Results for a panel of 114 developing countries show that the debt-growth nexus depends on institutions and policies. The Debt-Laffer curve...

Bank deregulation and progress in information technology altered the geographical diffusion of banking structures and instruments, and reduced operational distance between banks and local economies. Although, the consolidation of the banking industry promoted the geographical concentration of...

This paper starts from the concept of ‘original sin’ to demonstrate that the development of local currency bond markets remains a priority for Sub-Saharan African countries, both as a prevention mechanism against external shocks and to exploit growth-boosting investment opportunities. We...

Sub-Saharan African governments have made significant progress in developing domestic local currency bond markets over the last decade. While this bodes well for their countries’ economic resilience and facilitates necessary investments, many challenges remain.

Parmi les trois mécanismes de flexibilité du Protocole de Kyoto, le Mécanisme de Développement Propre (MDP) permet la diffusion des crédits de carbone provenant des projets compensatoires dans des pays non-Annexe I. Manque de réflexion sur les modes de financement des projets MDP, cet...

This article systematically reviews recent debt-for-development swaps in Indonesia, the only debtor country where the number of such swaps warrants their being considered as a deliberate government debt-relief policy and development finance strategy. We show that the 11 swaps Indonesia has...

This paper studies the current state and drivers of the development of government local currency bond markets (LCBMs) in Sub-Saharan Africa, a region whose progress in developing such markets has only recently received attention in the literature. We argue that well-developed LCBMs could reduce...