The Real Effects of Financial Crises: Evidence from an International Perspective

Financial crises can be considered as resulting from a condition of financial fragility determining serious effects on the whole economic system: from this perspective, economic literature has reveled the impact that systemic crises generally produce, in terms of GDP contraction, credit restrictions, consequences for the community because of the need for bank bailouts, decreases of investments, currency crises. Despite this evidence, there is still a lack of knowledge about the real effects that systemic financial crisis affecting the banking system can determine for the whole economy. By considering an international sample of systemic financial crises occurred in different banking systems, we regress the most relevant variables which characterize the economic performance of each countries, before and after each crisis, obtaining significant evidence about the effects that can result from the degree of financial development, together with the characteristics of financial firms and the effectiveness of legal and supervisory systems.