Using official national-level survey data, we investigate the impact of a large debt waiver program in India on beneficiaries savings and consumption. We find that the household consumption level and pattern are unaffected by the waiver. Plausibly anticipating higher credit constraints in the...

We investigate the impact of a large scale debt waiver program for small agricultural borrowers in India on the short term and long term consumption levels of the beneficiaries. We obtain consumption data from three national level surveys conducted before and after the waiver by a federal...

We discuss the literature on the shift from stakeholder to shareholder finance behind the Great Financial Crisis (GFC). Traditional banks generally maximized stakeholder value (STV). But before the GFC also many of them started maximizing shareholder value (SHV). Moving from STV to SHV often...

In this paper, I analyse the rise of mandatory structure of bankers' pay in Europe as outcome of criticism of pre-crisis remuneration practices at financial institutions. Whether flawed bankers' pay contributed to the financial crisis is still debated amongst scholars. It appears more likely...

This article uses Israel's ongoing process of bank privatization to explore the link between privatization programs and ownership structure of public companies. Our thesis is that concentrated ownership provides regulators with a platform for exerting informal influence over corporate...

This paper provides evidence of ratings shopping in the corporate bond market. By estimating systematic differences in agencies' biases about any given firm's bonds, I show that new bonds are more likely to be rated by agencies that are positively biased towards the firm---a pattern that is...

We study the effects of transparency disclosures on the risk culture, corporate culture, and performance of U.S. banks. Using stress test regulation, textual analysis, and a regression discontinuity design, we exploit the regulation's quasi-experimental properties around the bank-size policy...

The Federal Reserve can remove bankers from office if they violate the law, engage in unsafe or unsound practices, or breach their fiduciary duties. The Fed, however, has used this power so rarely that few even realize it exists. Although major U.S. banks have admitted to repeated and flagrant...