Financial Systems, Markets and Institutional Changes

Financial Systems, Markets and Institutional Changes analyses and exemplifies how the financial system endogenously adjusts to institutional changes such as new technology, political tendencies, cultural differences, new business models, and government interactions. It puts particular emphasis on how different institutional settings affect firms' borrowing and how the financial crisis affected the relationship between borrowing firms and lending banks. It further increases our understanding of how efficient financial markets are formed, by addressing issues related to the globalization of the financial market, questioning whether the EMU, with its regional imbalances, is an optimal currency union, and putting new requirements on an international lender of last resort. Recent technology developments, with high frequency trading, and the increased existence of Islamic banking are two further examples of institutional changes that form new actors and new markets.

Ted Lindblom is Professor and Chair of the Industrial and Financial Management and Logistics Section at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. His main research interests include corporate governance, banking and finance in which areas he has published extensively. He has also acted as a consultant. Professor Lindblom joined the Wolpertinger Club (the European Association of University Teachers of Banking and Finance) in the 1980s and is a member of the management committee.

Stefan Sjögren is Associate Professor in the Department of Business Administration at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He obtained his PhD at Gothenburg University in 1996. His research interests are within corporate finance including capital budgeting, international finance, valuation, deregulation, efficiency measurement and regulation. His research interests also cover venture capital and the valuation of ideas. He is the Director of Research in the Department of Business Administration.

Magnus Willesson is Senior Lecturer at Linnæus University, Växjö (Sweden) and part of the corporate governance research group. His current research focuses on the management of risk and efficiency of banks; risk-taking and risk management in banks, banking efficiency, corporate governance of banks, operational risk in banks and banks' adoption of the Basel II and Basel III accords.

1. Institutional Change and the Design of Financial Systems; Ted Lindblom, Stefan Sjögren and Magnus Willesson
2. The Road to a Viable Euro Zone and the Conditions to Become a More Optimal Currency Region; René W.H. van der Linden
3. The Role of the Federal Reserve as International LOLR During the Crisis; Pierluigi Morelli, Giovanni B. Pittaluga and Elena Seghezza
4. Firm-Based and Institutional-Based Determinants of the Bank Debt Maturity; Eleuterio Vallelado, Paolo Saona and Pablo San Martín
5. The Financing of Italian Firms and the Credit Crunch; Elisabetta Gualandri and Valeria Venturelli
6. Analysis of the Earnings of Italian Asset Management Companies and Their Portfolio Companies in the Field of Private Equity; Elisa Giaretta and Giusy Chesini
7. Does 'Political Bias' Undermine the Korea Investment Corporation?; Andrea Paltrinieri, Flavio Pichler and Stefano Miani
8. Regulating High-Frequency Trading; Giusy Chesini and Elisa Giaretta
9. Islamic and Conventional Exchanges; Josanco Floreani, Andrea Paltrinieri, Maurizio Polato and Flavio Pichler