Critically assess the extent to which market failure and behavioural bias theory can be used to explain bank failures during the 2008 financial crisis, referring to evidence from of at least one bank failure during that financial crisis.

1. 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 organisation/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 websites, 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 behavioural bias. You need to look market failure issues such as lack of competition, externalities, moral hazard and adverse select for example, and behavioural 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, 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 behavioural 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.