What drives the expansion of research on banking crises? Cross-country evidence

This article aims to identify the factors which promote research activity on banking crises in the cross-country framework during the period 2014-2020. Building on the population-adjusted country-level publication data from the Scopus and Web of Science databases and applying Bayesian model averaging (BMA) and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), we conduct an open search for such factors out of 23 candidate predictors. A higher level of bank concentration appears to be the most significant factor motivating research on banking crises. It is robust with respect to both bibliographic databases and variable selection methods used. Based only on the Scopus data, GDP per capita and the peak ratio of non-performing loans to total loans during the latest banking crisis experienced by a country also increase the number of published studies on banking crises.