<p> Most of the largest economic crises in recent history have been bank related. This dissertation contributes to improve our understanding of the causes and implications of financial crises because it approaches the study from a holistic perspective. It covers international, domestic, and systemic aspects that are necessary to understand the challenges imposed by financial liberalization, globalization, technological change, and interconnectivity. Chapter 1 provides the international perspective by examining the effect of global banking flows on credit booms; chapter 2 gives the domestic perspective by estimating the impact of financial crises on a country's long-run output growth; and chapter 3 zooms in further to get to the banking system level in order to study the propagation of shocks in a banking network endogenously generated by banks' profit maximizing decisions. Therefore, this dissertation accounts for the new challenges derived from the process of financial globalization and complex interconnections, and provides new venues for future analyses in this important research area.</p>