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Moldova: Consortium Of Banks Emergency Liquidity Program, 2014, Vincient Arnold

Journal of Financial Crises

In the fall of 2014, a bank fraud involving illegal loans and transfers resulted in USD 1 billion being stolen from the government of Moldova, which amounted to more than an eighth of Moldova’s GDP. In September 2014, it became clear to the National Bank of Moldova (NBM) that the banks involved in the fraud—Banca de Economii, Banca Sociala, and Unibank—were deeply insolvent and had been hiding that fact from regulators. In late November, the NBM issued 9.4 billion Moldovan lei (MDL; USD 640 million) in emergency credit to the banks at an interest rate of 10 basis points against …

Latvia: Parex Bank Emergency Liquidity Program, 2008, Bailey Decker

Journal of Financial Crises

Heading into the Global Financial Crisis, JSC Parex banka was Latvia’s second-largest bank in terms of assets, comprising 13.8% of total assets in the Latvian banking sector. In autumn 2008, Parex faced a capital shortfall owing to massive credit and market losses in addition to liquidity problems and deposit runs of 240 million Latvian lats (LVL; USD 428.6 million). Parex had two senior syndicated loans maturing in February and June 2009, totaling EUR 775 million (USD 992 million). Latvian authorities said they doubted that Parex would be able to pay back, extend, or replace these loans. Authorities intervened at the …

Italy: Banco Ambrosiano Emergency Liquidity Program, 1982, Kopal Ardimento

Journal of Financial Crises

On June 14, 1982, prompted by the disappearance of Banco Ambrosiano (BA) CEO Roberto Calvi, the Bank of Italy opened an investigation into BA, which revealed to the market BA’s 1.9 trillion–2.2 trillion Italian lire (ITL; USD 1.4 billion–USD 1.6 billion) in questionable foreign loans. The Treasury Ministry deemed intervention necessary because BA’s collapse would compromise the credibility of the Italian banking system abroad. Attempts to appeal to the Vatican Bank to honor guarantees it had made against these foreign loans failed. The Bank of Italy worried that runs on deposits would further impair BA while authorities explored alternatives to …

Ireland: Anglo Irish Bank Emergency Liquidity Assistance, 2009, Salil Gupta, Mahdi Khairallah, Nik Adlina Nik Moktar

Journal of Financial Crises

At the height of the Global Financial Crisis in September 2008, Anglo Irish Bank (Anglo), one of Ireland’s six core banks, specializing in commercial and residential real estate with EUR 101.3 billion in assets, faced severe losses. Irish authorities announced a blanket deposit and liability guarantee for the six banks including Anglo. At the same time, Anglo was offered standby liquidity facilities of EUR 3 billion from the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI) and EUR 10 billion from the two largest Irish commercial banks, which were not drawn on at the time. Anglo was nationalized in January 2009, as deposit …

Indonesia: Bank Century Emergency Liquidity Program, 2008, Vincient Arnold

Journal of Financial Crises

By the autumn of 2008, the effects of the Global Financial Crisis of 2007–2009 had struck Indonesia, as liquidity in interbank markets dried up, capital flows reversed, and economic growth slowed. On October 30, 2008, Bank Indonesia—the central bank of Indonesia—passed Regulation No. 10/26/PBI/2008, establishing a Short-Term Funding Facility for Commercial Banks (SFF). On October 31, 2008, the capital adequacy ratio of Bank Century, a relatively small Indonesian bank, was –3.35%. On November 14, 2008, after Bank Century failed to conduct payment clearing the day before, Bank Indonesia approved Bank Century for access to the SFF and began disbursements of …

Iceland: Kaupthing Emergency Liquidity Program, 2008, Sophia Alden, Léo Brougher

Journal of Financial Crises

Following the privatization of Iceland’s state-owned banks between 1998 and 2003, the three largest banks in Iceland—Glitnir, Landsbanki, and Kaupthing—grew rapidly, with consolidated assets increasing from 100% of Iceland’s GDP in 2004 to nearly 900% by the end of 2007. Initially, this growth was funded by debt issuances in the European medium-term note market; however, as cracks in the international financial system appeared in 2006, the banks turned to offering high-interest savings accounts through their foreign subsidiaries. Beginning in October 2006, Kaupthing launched “Kaupthing Edge,” an online savings and deposit platform operating in markets outside Iceland. When the United States …

Germany: Ikb Deutsche Industriebank Emergency Liquidity Program, 2008, Ayodeji George, Sophia Alden

Journal of Financial Crises

In the summer of 2007, IKB Deutsche Industriebank (IKB) faced heavy losses owing to the liquidity support it had provided on commercial paper issued by Rhineland Funding Capital Corporation, its off-balance-sheet vehicle, which held distressed collateralized debt obligations backed by US subprime mortgages. In July 2007, authorities became aware that IKB itself had lost access to liquidity from Deutsche Bank and other funding partners. Publicly owned development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) held a 38% stake in IKB, exposing it to potentially heavy losses in the event of an IKB failure. KfW, German financial authorities, and German banks pursued a …

Cyprus: Laiki Bank Ad Hoc Emergency Liquidity Assistance, 2011, Stella Schaefer-Brown

Journal of Financial Crises

Following the European Union’s decision to restructure Greek debt in October 2011, Laiki Bank’s depositors began to withdraw their funds from the bank in growing numbers after it reported that its portfolio of Greek government bonds had lost EUR 2.3 billion in value. Beginning October 2011 and lasting until the bank’s resolution in 2013, Laiki Bank requested and received emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) from the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) so that the bank could continue to fund itself as depositors withdrew their funds. In June 2012, Cypriot authorities recapitalized Laiki Bank, and the government became an 84% shareholder. From …

Denmark: Roskilde Bank Emergency Liquidity Program, 2008, Bailey Decker

Journal of Financial Crises

Roskilde Bank A/S (Roskilde) was the eighth-largest bank in Denmark at the time of the Global Financial Crisis, with approximately 43 billion Danish kroner (DKK; USD 9.1 billion) in consolidated assets as of March 2008. Roskilde had considerable exposure to real estate and construction firms, prompting ratings downgrades and larger write-downs than expected in July 2008. On July 10, 2008, Roskilde asked for liquidity assistance from the Danish central bank, Danmarks Nationalbank (DNB). Later that day, DNB and the banking sector’s self-insurance group, the Private Contingency Association (PCA), announced emergency liquidity assistance to Roskilde in the form of an unlimited …

Canada: Canadian Commercial Bank Emergency Liquidity Program, 1985, Adam Keanie, Léo Brougher

Journal of Financial Crises

In March 1985, the Canadian Commercial Bank (CCB)—Canada’s 10th largest bank, with CAD 2.9 billion in assets—reported to the Office of the Inspector General of Banks (OIGB) and the Bank of Canada (BoC) that CCB would not survive owing to large losses on its United States energy loans portfolio. In response, the BoC assembled an emergency CAD 255 million rescue package, secured through contributions from a consortium composed of the federal government, the provincial government of Alberta, the Canadian Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Canada’s six largest banks. Despite the BoC’s reassurances, including a public announcement promising virtually unlimited liquidity support, …

Ad Hoc Emergency Liquidity Programs In The 21st Century, Steven Kelly, Vincient Arnold, Greg Feldberg, Andrew Metrick

Journal of Financial Crises

This paper surveys 22 case studies of 21st century instances when financial crisis-fighters implemented ad hoc emergency liquidity (AHEL) interventions, interventions designed to provide liquidity to a troubled institution that the authorities believe is systemically important. While emergency liquidity support is often introduced with the real or communicated intention of preventing illiquidity from leading to insolvency, the liquidity crisis should instead be viewed as the manifestation of the market’s assessing the firm as nonviable as a going concern. For that reason, authorities should provide AHEL assistance only to institutions that they have deemed viable or that they have committed to …

Brazil: Banco Btg Pactual Emergency Liquidity Program, 2015, Vincient Arnold

Journal of Financial Crises

On November 25, 2015, André Esteves, then CEO of Banco BTG Pactual, a large Brazilian investment bank, was arrested by Brazilian authorities in connection with suspected involvement in a corruption scandal. Although the arrest did not involve BTG in any capacity and Esteves was later acquitted, the company’s stock quickly collapsed and depositors and other creditors rushed to reduce their exposures to the company. Depositors withdrew certificates of bank deposits, which BTG relied on to fund its daily operations. By November 27, BTG shares had fallen 26%. On December 2, the top seven shareholders of BTG took control of the …

Fighting "Fear Itself": The Bank Holiday Of March 1933, Matthew Jaremski, Gary Richardson, Angela Vossmeyer

Journal of Financial Crises

In the month preceding Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration, a panic overwhelmed the U.S. banking system. Immediately after assuming office, Roosevelt declared a nationwide bank holiday and vowed to reopen only sound banks. Five days after the holiday ended, nearly 11,000 of the nation's more than 18,000 commercial banks had reopened. Nearly 4,000 never reopened or had to be reorganized. The holiday is often credited with helping reestablish financial stability, but little is known about the mechanisms underlying the reopening process and the way in which payment systems were restored. We detail the process of reopening the banking system using narrative records …

Who Needs More Than 1 Water Bottle? Apparently, Everyone., Jazmyn Weddig

Honors Theses

This research investigates the interplay between a good’s functional durability, and its collectability, focusing on the Stanley Quencher water bottle market as a case in point, which has recently gained widespread consumer interest. It examines the economic and psychological factors driving consumer behavior and the market dynamics associated with durable goods that become collectibles. This paper begins with a comprehensive analysis of Stanley and the history of the company to provide a better understanding of their evolving marketing strategies. This paper takes special interest in collecting behavior, planned obsolescence, market structures and economic utility to help explain consumer behavior within …

Navigating Work-Life Balance: A Study Of School Educators In Challenging Contexts, Laurent Yacoub, Sara Abou Ibrahim, Nadine Osman, Zubaida Daye, Nada Jabbour Al Maalouf

Arab Economic and Business Journal

Work-life balance has become an essential aspect of employees’ fundamental rights provided by the workplace in almost every industry. While WLB is widely recognized for enhancing employees’ productivity, motivation, and consequently, the overall success of the organization, limited research has focused on its role in the educational sector, particularly in Lebanon. In the educational sector, this concept is particularly important since this sector is known for the high amounts of workload during and after school hours. This study explores the impact of work-life balance on job satisfaction among both Lebanese and non-Lebanese teachers in private and public schools in Lebanon, …

Fdi Spillovers And Wage Gaps In Indonesia, Mohammad Zeqi Yasin, Pyan Putro Surya Amin Muchtar, Nur Arifin

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

Our objective is to evaluate the competitiveness of local firms by determining whether the dynamic wage spillover model devised by Tomohara and Takii (2011) consistently captures subsectoral dynamics. We identify two subsectors that are witnessing positive spillovers using the Indonesian firm-level dataset. Nevertheless, our quantitative analysis demonstrates inconsistencies, with competitive subsectors contributing to wage disparities at a higher rate than uncompetitive firms. In other words, wage inequalities between foreign and local firms are not effectively reduced by competitive firms. In order to improve the performance of local firms and enable them to more effectively compete with foreign firms in labor …

Exit Policy, Liquidity Normalization, And Lts Implications On Central Bank Policy Transmission, Alexander Lubis, Rangga Pratama, Merlin Dwi Yunaniar, Wahyu Agung Nugroho, Dian Prima Susiandri

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

The objective of this study is to determine the implications for the effectiveness of monetary policy transmission by examining the impact of specific policy toolkits in both Advanced Economy (AE) and Emerging Market (EM) countries during crises and during normalization (exit policy) upon crisis resolution. The analysis conducted using the VECM method on a number of AE and EM countries demonstrates that the response of bank interest rates (credit) is consistent with changes in policy rates and substantially diverges from Quantitative Easing (QE) policy in both the short and long term. However, the efficacy of monetary policy transmission appears to …

Soft-Floor Auctions: Harnessing Regret To Improve Efficiency And Revenue, Dirk Bergemann, Kevin Breuer, Peter Cramton, Jack Hirsch, Yero S. Ndiaye, Axel Ockenfels

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A soft-floor auction asks bidders to accept an opening price to participate in an ascending auction. If no bidder accepts, lower bids are considered using first-price rules. Soft floors are common despite being irrelevant with standard assumptions. When bidders regret losing, soft-floor auctions are more efficient and profitable than standard optimal auctions. Revenue increases as bidders are inclined to accept the opening price to compete in a regret-free ascending auction. Efficiency is improved since having a soft floor allows for a lower hard reserve price, reducing the frequency of no sale. Theory and experiment confirm these motivations from practice.

“Essential” Migrants: Evidence From The 2020 H-2b Visa Lottery, Parag Mahajan

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

I study how access to foreign-born workers impacts firms and local economics in times of acute crisis. The 2020 H-2B visa lottery randomly gave some U.S. firms the chance to hire low-wage, migrant workers during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using administrative data across three government agencies, I find that access to H-2B workers led to decreased business closures, increased revenues, increased payroll, and increased employment in 2020. I also find suggestive evidence that these effects spilled over to non-participant firms within the same county.

How The H-2b Visa Lottery Helped Businesses During Covid, Parag Mahajan

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

Navigating Modernity: Political And Economic Shifts In The Nineteenth Cenutry, Austin Delsontro, Andrew Cox

Chronicles: Journal Of History

No abstract provided.

Microfinance In Latin America: Sustainability, Growth, And Efficiency, Katelyn M. Hoidal

Global Tides

The subsequent research addresses the question: Within populous Latin American countries (Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Argentina, Chile, and Peru), are microfinance institutions associated with differences in GDP and household consumption equally between 2010 and 2018? Which do they have a stronger correlation with? The essence of this question seeks to answer whether the correlation between MFIs and wealth indicators carries over to a national level or merely persists at an individual level. This research has been informed and influenced by literature and studies conducted across South Asia, Africa, and Latin America focusing on the research of Abdelkader, Naveeda, Annim, Campbell, Armendáriz, …

Profit Shifting And Tax Avoidance: Evidence From Us Multinational Enterprises, Dimitris Giakoulas, Kostas Gemenis, Nikolaos Daskalakis

The Journal of Economics and Politics

In this paper, we investigate tax avoidance of MNEs through profit shifting to tax havens. Using macro data from US MNEs, we analyze at the host country level where US affiliates book their profits and where their actual production activities take place. We find that the effect of the corporate tax on excess profits is conditional on whether the host country is considered to be a tax haven. Among tax haven host countries, a difference of 1% in the corporate tax is associated with a change of 8-15% in excess profits, while the relationship between corporate tax and excess profits …

Trade Openness And Spatial Inequality In Developing Countries: Case Study Of Asean-4, Rosalia Marcha Violeta, Vedy Ardine Sahetapy, Garda Maharsi, Mohamad Dian Revindo

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

Trade openness is widely associated with stronger medium- to-long-term economic growth, yet its distributional consequences within countries, particularly in developing economies, remain contested. This paper examines the relationship between trade openness and spatial inequality in four major ASEAN economies, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the Philippines, over the period 2012–2019. Spatial inequality is measured using Theil’s Index based on provincial-level GDP per capita, while trade openness is proxied by the trade-to-GDP ratio. Employing pooled OLS and fixed-effects estimations, the analysis controls for key structural factors such as economic development, population size, urbanization, government expenditure, and the number of spatial units. The …

Dampak Program Padat Karya Tunai Desa (Cash-For-Work) Terhadap Kriminalitas Desa Di Jawa Timur, Bella M. Sabrina, Evi Y. Purwanti

Jurnal Kebijakan Ekonomi

High crime rates in rural areas indicate development inequality and low welfare. The government initiated the Padat Karya Tunai Desa Program (Cash-for-Work) to improve welfare by providing employment. Using the Difference-in-Difference method with 2018 and 2021 PODES data from 7,721 villages in East Java, this study analyzes the impact of the PKTD Program and socio-economic factors on crime using three measures: total crime types, theft, and violence. Results show that the Cash-for-Work program does not reduce total crime types and violence, but has the potential to reduce theft. The number of poor-family increases crime, while the number of micro-industries reduces …

Evaluating The Current State Of Quality Measure Reporting In The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, Kinan Sawar, Geoffrey Potts Md

Medical Student Research Symposium

The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) requires physicians to report quality measures along with other metrics that are used to determine an annual percentage adjustment to physician Medicare Part B payments. Unfortunately, physicians have been forced to choose from an ineffective, limited set of quality measures. This has led to an overreliance on process measures, which fail to stratify physician performance effectively; it has also led to differences in the number of reporting options across specialties, resulting in unequal opportunity for physicians to succeed in MIPS. Using Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) public use file data from 2021-2024, …

A Geospatial Approach To Measuring Economic Activity, Anton Yang, Jianwei Ai, Costas Arkolakis

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We introduce a new methodology to detect and measure economic activity using geospatial data and apply it to steel production, a major industrial pollution source worldwide. Combining plant output data with geospatial data, such as ambient air pollutants, nighttime lights, and temperature, we train machine learning models to predict plant locations and output. We identify about 40% (70%) of plants missing from the training sample within a 1 km (5 km) radius and achieve R² above 0.8 for output prediction at a 1 km grid and at the plant level, as well as for both regional and time series …

The Role Of Gender Equity In Olympic Success Using Panel Data, Anusha Khan

Honors Projects in Mathematics and Economics

This study investigates whether gender equity is one of the determinants of Olympic success at the country level. Using panel data with 766 observations from six Olympic years (2012–2022), it examines the relationship between gender equity and national medal counts. Three Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models were estimated using total, men’s, and women’s medal counts as dependent variables. While the findings vary across models, results suggest that gender equity may be positively associated with Olympic performance, though its significance is limited when controlling for other social and economic variables.

The Pitch Clock's Impacts On The Game Of Baseball, Cole Ricciarelli

Honors Projects in Mathematics and Economics

Past research has investigated what on-field statistics have impacted the success of MLB teams. However, this paper aims to look at the effect that the recent rule change of the pitch clock has on the win percentage of MLB teams. With the implementation of the pitch clock, it was expected that teams with a lower average pitch time would see more success. Using data from the 2013-2024 seasons, statistical analysis was run to determine which variables impacted team win percentage the most. It was found that average pitch times of pitchers did not play a significant role in overall team …

Investing In "Left Behind" Places: Learning From Native American Tribal Communities, Robert Maxim

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

As part of the Brookings Scholar Lecture Series, Brookings Mountain West presents a lecture titled, "Investing in 'Left Behind' Places: Learning from Native American Tribal Communities" by Brookings fellow in Brookings Metro, Robert Maxim.

Over the past decade, U.S. political and economic discourse has centered on helping “left behind” places. The federal government joined this conversation, emphasizing everything from tariffs and trade protectionism to revitalize domestic industry, to landmark industrial policy bills aimed at pouring new federal investment into lagging places. Native American tribes can serve as an important case study for understanding how federal, state, and local policies can …