We conduct the first broad-based international study on bank-level failures covering 92 countries over 2000-2014, investigating national culture variables as failure determinants. We find individualism and masculinity are positively associated with bank failure, but operate through different...

An important theoretical literature motivates collateral as a mechanism that mitigates adverse selection, credit rationing, and other inefficiencies that arise when borrowers hold ex ante private information. There is no clear empirical evidence regarding the central implication of this...