Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Los Angeles, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-219).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Cornell University, 1995. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 142-147).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California at Berkeley, 1990. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Richard Ivey School of Business, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 229-248).

Thesis (doctoral) - Freie Universität, Berlin, 2004. / "with 12 figures and tables". Includes bibliographical references ( p. [143]-155).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-222).

Thesis (doctoral) - Freie Universitat, Berlin, 2004. / Title from e-book title screen (viewed March 17, 2008). Includes bibliographical references ( p. [143]-155).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 209-222). Also available on the Internet.

Modern banking theories provide a host of explanations for the existence of intermediaries, highlight their important influence on economic growth, delineate the risks inherent in the services they provide, and illustrate the market failures and real costs of bank failures that precipitate the need for regulation and oversight of the sector. This thesis is a collection of three essays that looks at three of these key aspects of financial intermediaries - the development of financial intermediaries, the function of the lender of last resort that has emerged as an important part of the safety net afforded to financial intermediaries, and the occurrence of financial crises. The first chapter of this thesis provides an introduction to the academic literature on financial intermediation covering different theories put forward to explain their emergence, and highlighting the risks inherent in their operation. It emphasizes the crucial functions they perform in the economy and makes a case for regulation and oversight of the sector to reduce the incidence and alleviate the effects of financial crises. The second chapter seeks to determine the policy and institutional factors that influence the development of financial institutions as measured across three dimensions - depth, efficiency, and stability. Applying the concept of the financial possibility frontier, developed by Beck and Feyen (2013) and formalized by Barajas et al. (2013b), we determine key policy variables affecting the gap between actual levels of development and benchmarks predicted by structural variables. Our dynamic panel estimation shows that inflation, trade openness, institutional quality, and banking crises significantly affect financial development. We also assess the impact of the policy variables across the different dimensions of development thereby identifying complementarities and potential trade-offs for policy makers. The third chapter models the role of the lender of last resort (LoLR) in a general equilibrium framework. We allow for heterogeneous agents and a risk-averse banking sector, and incorporate the frictions of endogenous default, liquidity, and money. Adverse supply shocks in monetary endowments trigger default, leading to deterioration in the value of bank assets, and subsequent bank illiquidity in some states of the world. LoLR intervention is then assessed with regards to its economy-wide effect on welfare, bank profitability, and the level of default. The results provide a justification for constructive ambiguity. The fourth chapter aims to provide an explanation for the incidence of financial crises by combining insights from agency theory and Minsky's financial instability hypothesis (Minsky, 1992) in a model with endogenous default. Our theoretical model shows that the probability of a financial crisis increases as the quality of shareholder information decreases. We then develop a measure for the quality of shareholder information following Simon (1989) and show that the market-wide quality of shareholder information: i) is poor (with no trend) in the Pre-SEC period (1840 to 1934); ii) improves substantially following the SEC reforms; and iii) gradually declines starting in the 1960s/70s until it is now back to pre-SEC levels. This matches up with the standard list of US financial crises (as in Reinhart and Rogoff 2009; Reinhart 2010) and supports our hypothesis that the likelihood of a financial crisis increases with deterioration in the quality of shareholder information.

by Leung Hiu Tung, Vivien. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-184). / Chapter Chapter One: --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1) --- Economic Restructuring in Hong Kong --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2) --- An Agenda Of and For Working Class Families --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3) --- Synopsis of Arguments --- p.5 / Chapter 1.4) --- "Methodology, Sampling and Limitation" --- p.13 / Chapter 1.5) --- Structure of This Thesis --- p.16 / Chapter Chapter Two: --- "Gender, Family and the Economy" --- p.18 / Chapter 2.1) --- Social Dimension of Economic Restructuring --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2) --- "Family, Gender and the Economy" --- p.20 / Chapter 2.3) --- Unpacking the Chinese Family --- p.24 / Chapter 2.4) --- Reconceptualizing Family Strategy --- p.26 / Chapter 2.5) --- Framework and Conceptualization --- p.32 / Chapter Chapter Three: --- The Socio-Political Context of Economic Restructuring in Hong Kong / Chapter 3.1) --- The Hong Kong Way of Economic Restructuring --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2) --- Economic Restructuring: A Private Problem of Workers --- p.42 / Chapter 3.3) --- The Gendered Labour Market Under Economic Restructuring --- p.46 / Chapter Chapter Four: --- Gender Embeddedness of Strategization --- p.50 / Chapter 4.1) --- Major Concerns of Coping Responses --- p.52 / Chapter 4.2) --- Strategic Orientation --- p.55 / Chapter 4.3) --- Familial Resources and Constraints in Devising Coping Responses --- p.59 / Chapter 4.4) --- Subjective Engagement of the Actors --- p.63 / Chapter Chapter Five: --- Familial Embeddedness I-- Strategization of Impoverished Families --- p.68 / Chapter 5.1) --- The Predicaments of Impoverished Families --- p.69 / Chapter 5.2) --- Impoverished Traditional Families: Patriarchal Household Resource Mobilization --- p.73 / Chapter 5.3) --- Impoverished Flexible Families: Negotiating Household Resource --- p.85 / Chapter 5.4) --- Impoverished Solitary Families: Relying on External Resource --- p.93 / Chapter 5.5) --- Strategization in Impoverished Families --- p.96 / Chapter Chapter Six: --- Familial Embeddedness II-- Strategization of Sustainable Families --- p.99 / Chapter 6.1) --- Sustainable Traditional Families: Securing Breadwinner's Employment --- p.101 / Chapter 6.2) --- Sustainable Flexible Families: Negotiating Couple's Employment --- p.113 / Chapter 6.3) --- Strategization in Sustainable Families --- p.123 / Chapter Chapter Seven: --- Familial Embeddedness III-- Strategization of Affluent Families --- p.127 / Chapter 7.1) --- Mobilizing Breadwinner's Employment --- p.128 / Chapter 7.2) --- Trivializing Wife's Employment --- p.131 / Chapter 7.3) --- Strategization in Affluent Families --- p.138 / Chapter Chapter Eight: --- Conclusion --- p.140 / Chapter 8.1) --- The Gender Embeddedness and Familial Embeddedness of Strategization --- p.141 / Chapter 8.2) --- The Social Impacts of Economic Restructuring -- Gender and Intraclass Differences --- p.143 / Chapter 8.3) --- Theoretical Implication: Family Strategy Revisited --- p.147 / Endnotes --- p.155 / Appendix / Chapter 1: --- Tables --- p.162 / Chapter 2: --- Profile of the Informants and of their Families --- p.164 / Chapter 3: --- Question Set for In-depth Interviews --- p.169 / Bibliography --- p.174 / LIST OF TABLES / Table 1.1 Gender Difference in Strategization --- p.5 / Table 1.2 Familial Embeddedness in Strategization --- p.7 / Table 4.1 Gender Difference in Strategization (Same as Table 1.1) --- p.51 / Table 4.2 Categorization of Informants Across Attitudes and Major Concerns in Strategization --- p.51 / Table 5.1 Familial Embeddedness in Strategization (Same as Table 1.2) --- p.68 / Table 5.2 Categorization of Families According to Different Familial Contexts --- p.69 / Appendix 1 / "Table I Persons and Percentage Engaged in Selected Economic Sectors, 1985-94" --- p.162 / Table II Establishments and Persons Engaged in the Manufacturing Sector --- p.162 / Table III Nominal and Real Wage Indices of Payroll per Person Engaged --- p.164