Journal of Economic Literature
Book Reviews
2026-09-01
Sudipto Bhattacharya of London School of Economics and Political Science reviews “Why Are There So Many Banking Crises? The Politics and Policy of Bank Regulation” by Jean-Charles Rochet,. The EconLit Abstract of the reviewed work begins “Ten previously published papers examine the causes of banking crises around the world in recent decades, focusing on the effects of political interference. Papers discuss why there are so many banking crises; coordination failures and the lender of last resort--whether Walter Bagehot was right after all; the lender of last resort--a twenty-first century approach; macroeconomic shocks and banking supervision; interbank lending and systemic risk; controlling risk in payment systems; systemic risk, interbank relations, and the central bank; capital requirements and the behavior of commercial banks; rebalancing the three pillars of Basel II; and the three pillars of Basel II--optimizing the mix. Rochet is Professor of Mathematics and Economics at the University of Toulouse. No index.”