This paper empirically analyzes the determinants of banks' systemic importance. In constructing a measure on the systemic importance of financial institutions we find that size is a leading determinant. This confirms the usual "Too big to fail'' argument. Nevertheless, banks with size above a...

This paper empirically analyses the determinants of banks’ systemic importance. With applying a novel measure on the systemic importance to US bank holding companies in 2000–2010, we show that size is an important determinant of systemic importance, but banks with size above a certain...