Lliçons de la crisi: economia productiva vs. economia financera Authors Jordi Gual Abstract This paper examines the characteristics of the financial system that tends to accentuate economies' cyclical fluctuations and, on occasion, ends up causing asset bubbles and financial crises, like the one that started in 2007 with the US subprime mortgages. The paper discusses, first, some features of the economics of banking that make it inherently cyclical. In particular, competition for market share at times of expansion and the difficulty in assessing risk throughout the cycle. However, the lion's share of the analysis focuses on the procyclical factors that result from the imperfect functioning of financial markets. The serious problems of asymmetric information between the different agents in the industry managers, borrowers, creditors and owners result in a tendency towards excessive leverage during a boom and overly restrictive policies during downturns. The paper also examines how these problems of information, together with negative externalities between institutions, can lead to extreme situations of seriously unstable markets (bubbles and crises). It also discusses to what extent some of the current regulations help to exacerbate the sector's procyclical nature instead of alleviating it. The conclusion proposes principles that might be taken into account by a regulatory framework that helps to reduce the procyclical nature of the financial system. Downloads Text complet (Català) Published 2015-03-17 Issue Vol. 21 (2015) Section Les Conferències: curs 2008-2009 License Aquesta obra és subjecta —llevat que s'indiqui el contrari en el text, en les fotografies o en altres il·lustracions— a una llicència Reconeixement - No comercial - Sense obres derivades 3.0 Espanya de Creative Commons, el text complet de la qual es pot consultar a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/deed.ca. Així, doncs, s'autoritza al públic en general a reproduir, distribuir i comunicar l'obra sempre que se'n reconegui l'autoria i l'entitat que la publica i no se'n faci un ús comercial ni cap obra derivada.