External authors
Joost Bats
Economist at the Dutch Central Bank
Joost Bats is an economist at the Dutch Central Bank and a PhD researcher at the University of Amsterdam. He is specialized in monetary economics and financial structure.
External authors
Blog Post
Europe has a heavily bank-based financial structure, but bank-based financial structures are associated with higher systemic risk than market-based financial structures. The higher level of systemic risk in Europe suggests caution when pursuing policies that stimulate risk taking and debt creation by banks, especially in the wake of COVID-19. Priority should be given to financial diversification and equity finance.