Essay --

â€Å" Many risks come along with big bonuses† The burst of the housing bubble in the US caused the collapse of financial institutions and the bailed out of banks by governmental institutions resulting in the 2008 financial crisis. One of these banks was the Royal Bank of Scotland who ran out of money. Bankers were blamed for acting out of self-interest and making risky decisions. These failures will be analysed in this essay by giving answer to the following question: â€Å"How did agency theory contributed to the 2007 financial crisis?† Introductory, agency theory discusses the relationship in which one party, the principal, delegates work to another, the agent (Eisenhardt, 1989). The core idea behind agency theory is to through contracting align the interest of shareholders (principal) with that of the managers (agents) in order to maximize shareholders value. Thus, the decision-making is being separated from the party who bears the risk; therefore, problems can arise. Firstly, the principal cannot verify whether the agent has behaved appropriately (the agent and principal have partly di...