The Reasons Behind Banking Crises and their Real Economy Impact : Achievements of the 2022 Nobel Laureates in Economics

Abstract

In 2022, the Nobel Prize in economics was awarded jointly to Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig, for their research on the financial system that shed light on the reasons for, and the consequences of, bank panics. Diamond and Dybvig showed that the banking system provides socially useful services through maturity transformation and delegated monitoring, and they also pointed out that maturity transformation made the banking system fundamentally vulnerable, which, if left unregulated, may experience bank panics. Bernanke demonstrated the macroeconomic significance of the banking system and analysed the negative macroeconomic impact of bank panics. Their research helped lay the foundations of a regulatory environment that fosters the efficient functioning of the financial system without bank panics.