AUTHOR'S BIO
Xavier Vives
Xavier Vives is Professor of Economics and Finance at IESE Business School, Barcelona.
| RECENT COMMENTARIES | FEATURED COMMENTARIES | MOST READ COMMENTARIES |
-
The Banking Conundrum
Xavier Vives Series: The New Global Economy 2011-09-12Whereas central bankers and regulators tend to worry that too much competition in the financial sector increases instability and the risk of systemic failure, competition authorities tend to believe that the more competition, the better. Both can’t be right.... read Comments: 2 Recommended: 1 Read: 17063
-
An Antitrust Counter-Revolution?
Xavier Vives Series: European Economies 
2010-01-12
The current crisis, with its government bailouts and subsidies, has placed tremendous pressure on competition policy on both sides of the Atlantic. As a result, whereas antitrust policy had come to focus on efficiency since its inception in late nineteenth-century America, it may revert to its original populist focus on the size of firms.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 12317
-
Fads, Frenzies, and Finance
Xavier Vives Series: Frontiers of Growth 2008-12-31More and more people claim that markets are characterized by irrationality, bubbles, fads, and frenzies, and that economic actors are driven by behavioral biases. If such beliefs are generally accepted, we will end up enacting paternalistic policies aimed at controlling behavior or bailing out failed agents and institutions, which could be self-defeating and even dangerous. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 13857
-
The End of Banks?
Xavier Vives Series: The World in Words 2008-04-23The fundamental question raised by the current financial crisis is who monitors opaque loans, whether of the sub-prime or any other variety. Traditionally, the answer was banks; in the securitized world, it remains a question.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 17057
-
Spain’s New Conquistadors
Xavier Vives Series: The World in Words 2000-07-27BARCELONA: Espańa va bien (Spain is doing well). That phrase is on everyone’s tongue nowadays. So it should be. Spain has not boomed nor felt as self-confident since its Age of Discovery. Instead of sending out swashbuckling conquistadors, however, Spanish companies are exploring the world in search of new opportunities. From BSCH and BBVA in banking, Repsol-YPF, Endesa, Iberdrola in energy, and Telefónica in telecoms, Spanish companies have boldly displaced US firms as prime investors in Latin America. All this activity has put Madrid back on the map, not only as a force in the global marketplace but in diplomacy too. ... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 0 Read: 8312
