Varieties of helping capitalism: politico-economic determinants of bank rescue packages in the EU during the recent crisis

This article explores the determinants of bank rescue packages in the European Union during the recent financial crisis. Despite the common EU framework, Member States had room for manoeuvre with respect to the size and structure of bank rescue packages as well as the conditions attached to the measures. There are inherent conflicts between different objectives of bank rescue packages; therefore, their design involves choices and impacts the distribution of income and wealth. Using data for the size of national bank rescue packages, a novel approach to measure generosity of the conditions attached and an index of credit supply requirements, we explore the possible determinants of the underlying choices. Building on and investigating hypotheses from political economy and the Varieties of Capitalism literatures, we analyse economic, political and institutional factors contributing to differences among national approaches to crisis intervention.