Documento de trabajo

Research on banking performance and efficiency has advanced greatly in the past three decades, justified by the importance of a properly functioning financial system to the economy in general. In Colombia, too, banks have been the subject of research studies, though as yet to a lesser extent…

In recent years, different mergers have taken place both in the financial and manufacturing sectors. These processes have raised questions as to the policies implemented with regard to trade offs between profits via efficiency and those related to social costs, given the presence of greater…

The financial system’s response to the various phases of the cycle is characterized by high credit growth during the upswing phase and its rationing during the downswing. This behavior is related to the financial system’s tendency to underestimate the credit risk during the upturn and to…

According to Large (2005)2 , there are at least three things central banks must do to encourage financial stability. They first must assess the threats to the financial system. Secondly, they must monitor stability of the payment system and take actions to reduce any risk on this front. Finally…

Bankruptcy is a threat to financial stability, if a company fails to meet its financial obligations. Obviously, the risk to financial stability increases with the number of liquidated corporations and the size of the debt each has acquired. Moreover, in a scenario characterized by a significant…

Entities and regulators alike are becoming more interested in measuring and the market risk (MR) associated with the trading book1 , given the growing share of investments comprising the financial system’s assets. The Office of the Superintendencia Bancaria (Banking Superintendency)2 in Colombia…

A financial crisis usually is due to the emergence of one or more risks to the financial system at a particular point in time. The costs to the economy affected by a crisis are high, which is why financial system stability is of constant concern to economic authorities, including the central…

We study the relation between oil prices and stock market returns for a set of six countries, including important oil consumers and demanders. We study interconnectedness between oil and stock markets and characterize the dynamics of transmission and reception between them. We test for Granger…

Central banks have achieved positive results for inflation during the last two decades. At the same time, their concern for financial stability has increased, particularly after the late nineties, when they experienced the high costs that come with financial crisis.1 Moreover, it now seems clear…

As Freixas and Rochet (1997) mention, in perfect competition the optimal choice for banks is determined by the point where intermediation margins are equal to operating costs. In this scenario, market equilibrium is not affected by a bank’s actions. In contrast, when a bank has market power, it…

The private corporate sector is the primary debtor in the Colombian financial system (commercial loans account for 54.9% of the total gross portfolio). Consequently, it is extremely important to measure and monitor the risk this sector of the economy might pose to the financial system. Ever…

Elements of both supply and demand interact during a financial crisis, which explains the precarious growth in credit. Nonetheless, it is important that demand-side incentives be generated ex post. These also help to reactivate loans by fueling the supply of credit. The latter usually remains…

The importance of properly monitoring and regulating liquidity risk is associated with systemic risk and with stability of the financial system. If institutions do not measure liquidity risk adequately and if it is not well regulated, financial institutions could see their positions affected by…

Several governments still need to adjust their fiscal balance after the Great Recession. In this paper, I construct a novel dataset to estimate the revenue potential and expenditure cutting space for a cross-section of 150 countries, and decompose their fiscal capacity into specific taxes and…

Based on individual data on the population of those arrested in Medellín, we assess whether the change in punishment at age 18, mandated by law, has a deterrent effect on arrests. No deterrent effect was found on index, violent or property crimes, but a deterrence effect was found on non-index…

Obesity is widely accepted as one of the main causes of premature death, and the causal relationship between obesity and several of the most deadly chronic diseases is a consensus in the medical and public health literature. Obesity in the United States has recently been recognized as a public…

We assess the causes and implications of the greater nancial participation in commodity markets post-2003. Focusing on crude oil, we build a calibrated macro-nance model of oil prices and quantities that also determines consumer welfare. We show that shifts in the preferences and constraints…

This paper addresses the estimation of peer group effects on a fertility decision. The peer group is composed of neighbors with similar socio-demographic characteristics. In order to deal with the endogeneity problem associated to the estimation of neighborhood effects, an instrumental variables…

International reserves are very important for emerging economies, as they allow to buffer possible liquidity vulnerabilities within a countries' balance of payments. Consequently, the issue of how many reserves should each country hold is a relevant issue for economic policy. The literature has…