Financial regulations have historically followed economic cycles, becoming looser during economic booms and stricter in the wake of crises, a research paper published by the IMF says.

Regulatory cycles: revisiting the political economy of financial crises, by Jihad Dagher, reviews some of the most important financial crises in history and identifies several patterns.

The author says the idea that stricter regulation could have averted or diminished the effects of the great recession is well