Financial Crises: Sources, Manifestations, Consequences

Abstract

Building on the empirical studies and financial crises theories, a general framework describing the mechanisms of crisis formation and transmission is developed. Factors of crisis formation include external and internal imbalances, shocks, deficiencies of economic policies and changes in the economic agents behavior (in particular, as concerns price bubbles formation and burst). Channels of crisis transmission include direct links between financial organizations; "negative loss spirals" arising from massive asset sales; increase in uncertainty. The framework is employed to the analysis of several crisis episodes in 1990s and 2000s (Mexican, Asian, Russian and Argentine crises). The channels of crisis transmission to the real economy are also considered. The approaches to measuring both short- and long-term impact of crises on fiscal stability and economic growth are discussed.