Introduction

Abstract

The Worldwide Financial Crisis stimulated intensified research on financial crises and sovereign defaults. In this edited volume we provide a variety of papers about important issues related to the recent financial crisis. The papers discuss new modelling approaches to financial crises, defaults, their dependencies and consequences with a special focus on features of financial institutions and financial markets. Many papers have a focus on the European Union and crisis risks of developed countries. The book also provides interesting suggestions to the solution of crises and the improvement of financial stability. This concerns especially the design of institutional features and financial contracts. The introduction provides an overview on the book in general and the individual contributions.