What type of crisis is generated when debt increases? We study the Spanish debt evolution in the 19th and 20th centuries by introducing currency and stock-market crises in the Reinhart and Rogoff (2011) framework. We find their same results for the determinants of banking and debt crises but...

This article presents and critically evaluates the Greek sovereign defaults and puts them into historical perspective. More specifically, each of the four defaults of the Greek State (1827, 1843, 1893 and 1932) was not an isolated episode in the turbulent economic history of capitalism, but...

This paper introduces the concept of “debt intolerance,” which manifests itself in the extreme duress many emerging markets experience at debt levels that would seem manageable by advanced country standards. We argue that “safe” external debt-to-GNP thresholds for debt intolerant...

From ancient times to the modern world, "The Shortest History of Economics" (published in the United States as "How Economics Explains the World") discusses the hidden economic forces behind war, innovation and social transformation. It traces how capitalism and the market system emerged, and...

This paper presents annual stock market capitalization data for 17 advanced economies from 1870 to today. Extending our knowledge beyond individual benchmark years in the seminal work of Rajan and Zingales (2003) reveals a striking new time series pattern: over the long run, the evolution of...

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies’ spectacular rise over the past years has attracted considerable public and academic interest. The important question arising in this context is whether cryptocurrencies can legitimately be regarded as money. This paper contributes to the current discourse by...

Review of the book titled 'Rethinking Housing Bubbles The Role of Household and Bank Balance Sheets in Modeling Economic Cycles' by Steven D. Gjerstad and Vernon L. Smith. Published by Cambridge University Press in May 2014.

The article examines Spain’s colonial legacy in the long run development of Spanish America. It surveys the fiscal and constitutional outcomes of independence and assesses the relative fiscal and trade burden imposed by colonialism. Constitutional asymmetries between revenue collecting and...

The development of economic thought in the Islamic tradition started since the beginning of the first century of the Hijrah. This period is a time when the scientific works about how to achieve economic progress and strengthen the country through foreign trade intangibles movements in the West,...

The objective of the study was to determine if a policy of preference for the domestic public debt market influences the development of the respective national financial system. This research finds that such influence does exist. Using panel data techniques, the causal relationship between the...