This contribution attempts to explain the recent financial crisis and the subsequent Great Recession from the point of view of incentives that change as a consequence of securitization and contagion processes. It provides a critical analysis of the basic principles of the Asymmetric Information...

There is no doubt that the shadow banking system played an important role in the global financial crisis. What is in question is whether it played a causal or merely amplifying role. This paper argues in favour of the latter. Focusing specially on the process of the production of CDOs through...