The Lehman Brothers critically assess the extent to which market failure and behavioral bias theory can
be used to explain bank failures during the last financial crisis, referring to evidence from of at least one
bank failure during the financial crisis.
Short introduction, say what your aim is, why and how you will achieve it within the essay.
2. A discussion of the main issue/focus/history or background to the organization/sector/issue. You will be
presenting some background evidence here that will be drawn from a variety of sources many of which will
be electronic and/or web pages. You must cite in the essay all your sources as you use them. Avoid direct
quotes, it is bad style. Take the ideas and evidence from your sources, write it up in your own words and
cite the sources after each relevant sentence. Use the Harvard style. If you are unsure how to deal with
web cites, then go to the library and get their Harvard referencing style guide.
3. A development of the relevant concepts and theory that you are using to examine the issue. You must
consider market efficiency, the economic market failure theory, regulation theory and aspects of
behavioral bias. You need to look market failure issues such as lack of competition, externalities, moral
hazard and adverse select for example, and behavioral factors such as herding, confirmation bias,
overconfidence, present bias, etc. You might want to discuss differences of opinion or views, and/or apply
the theory and concepts to what actually happened. You need to explain why the theory and/or concepts
are of value in achieving your aim. You might be using them to examine causes and effects, evaluate
outcomes, or judge responsibility for outcomes for example. In this section you are more likely to have
sources from text books, academic journals, and research papers from global institutions such as the Bank
for International Settlements and the Bank of England, specialist magazines such as the economist, etc.
Information and ideas from these must all be cited and referenced using the Harvard style. You will need to
focus on market failure theory and behavioral bias theory in particular.
4. A section where you use detailed evidence from different sources about the issue together with the
theory and concepts you have identified, to explore what happened. This is analysis. The idea is to discuss,
evaluate and comment. Your comments are your views, and should be drawn and based directly from your
discussion and evaluation.
5. A short conclusion, no new material here.