Three Branches of Theories of Financial Crises presents basic frameworks linked to the broad topic of financial crises and describes some of the directions in which they influenced the literature and the way they relate to recent events. The authors also address some of the policy challenges, shedding light on them using the analytical tools at hand so that this survey will help to highlight the basic underlying forces that have been studied in the literature for over three decades in a simple and transparent way. It will be an easy and accessible source to the many economists who are...