Financial crises impose large and persistent social costs, making banking stability important.
This article reviews the central issues surrounding the role bank capital plays in financial …

Using novel data on bank applications to the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), we
study the effect of government assistance on bank risk taking. Bailed-out banks initiate …

We analyze the roles of bank ownership, management, and compensation structures in
bank failures during the recent financial crisis. Our results suggest that failures are strongly …

Would the crisis have happened if Lehman Brothers had been Lehman Sisters? Evidence
on population gender differences in risk aversion suggests not. But population averages can …

We examine the ability of selected accounting and audit quality variables measured in a
period prior to the financial crisis (ie, the four quarters of 2006), to predict banks that …

We develop a model of the joint capital structure decisions of banks and their borrowers.
Bank leverage of 85% or higher emerges because bank seniority both dramatically reduces …

During the recent financial crisis, financial expertise among independent directors of
financial institutions is negatively related to changes in both Tobin's Q and cumulative stock …

Financial regulation has entered into a new era, as many foundational economic theories
and policies supporting the existing infrastructure have been and are being questioned …

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Improvement Act (FDICIA) of 1991 was
designed, among other things, to introduce risk-based deposit insurance, increase capital …

This paper studies how a financial system that is organized to efficiently create safe assets
responds to macroeconomic shocks. Financial intermediaries face a cost of bearing risk, so …