The focus of the present volume - which originates from a workshop held at the Bank of Italy on 16 and 17 April 2009 - is the regulatory response given to financial crises in the past, across countries. Alongside the scholarly interest of such a review its aim is also to offer some insights that may be useful in re-designing regulation in the present time of distress.
Financial crises have been examined under many perspectives, including that of regulatory failures. The studies assembled in this volume, which touch on a significant array of countries, can be viewed as part of a historical survey on this issue. The basic question is whether regulatory responses form a pattern, and more specifically, whether they tend to be biased with respect to an optimum, however defined.
In the end, rather than finding one pattern of response, we were able to identify the "disturbances" which most often enter the post-crisis decisional process. The awareness of such factors, and some knowledge of their functioning, are instrumental in understanding (for academics) and in governing (for policy makers) the response to major financial crises.
Organizing Committee: Alfredo Gigliobianco, Gianni Toniolo, Claire Giordano.
