The SEC’s Division of Enforcement is frequently criticized for its lack of oversight effectiveness, and certain vocal critics attribute this to a lack of financial experience within the SEC. Using novel hand-collected data on SEC regional directors, I find that most of these senior SEC...

The Dodd-Frank Act was signed into law on July 21, 2010 (DFA 2010). The Act extended the role and protection of whistleblowers by providing awards to whistleblowers who gave relevant information to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission...

The history of rating agency reform has not been inspiring. Until recently, it seemed stuck in an ever-repeating cycle of futility. A crisis would spur calls for reform, hearings would be conducted, the SEC would issue proposals and requests for comments, and ultimately, nothing would happen -...

This paper documents the features of a new database that focuses on changes in the intensity in the usage of several widely used prudential tools, taking into account both macro-prudential and microprudential objectives. The database coverage is broad, spanning 64 countries, and with quarterly...

We summarize and evaluate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's credit risk transfer (CRT) programs, which have been used since 2013 to shift a portion of credit risk on more than $1.8 trillion of mortgages to private sector investors. We argue that the CRT programs have been successful in reducing the...

This paper documents the features of a new database that focuses on changes in the intensity in the usage of several widely used prudential tools, taking into account both macro-prudential and micro-prudential objectives.The database coverage is broad, spanning 64 countries, and with quarterly...

This paper documents the features of a new database that focuses on changes in the intensity in the usage of several widely used prudential tools, taking into account both macro-prudential and microprudential objectives. The database coverage is broad, spanning 64 countries, and with quarterly...

We provide evidence for a specific challenge in the design of macroprudential policy, namely political interference. Using panel data from 80 countries over the period of 1990-2016, we uncover the electoral cycles in macroprudential policy. We show that a loosening in macroprudential policy...

The Global Financial Crisis saw an unprecedented level of government intervention to save failing financial institutions. Bailouts became synonymous with the Crisis. Despite promises of “no more bailout”, international efforts to implement resolution regimes to resolve systemically important...

This paper introduces a new comprehensive database of macroprudential policies, which combines information from various sources and covers 134 countries from January 1990 to December 2016. Using these data, we first confirm that loan-targeted instruments have a significant impact on household...