Ross Levine, Ola Olsson, Antonio Spilimbergo, Enrico Spolaore, Romain Wacziarg, David Weil
This research argues that “deep-rooted ” factors, determined tens of thousands of years ago, had asignificant effect on the course of economic development across regions of the world. It advances...
Marks, Jennifer L., Gong, Yixuan X., Chitale, Dhananjay, Golas, Ben, McLellan, Michael D., Kasai, Yumi, ...
Complex Ownership Structures and Corporate Valuations (2008)
The bulk of corporate governance theory examines the agency problems that arise from two extreme ownership structures: 100% small shareholders or one large, controlling owner combined with small...
Napoleon Bourses, Ross Levine, Rafael Cici, Norberto Lopez, Isnardi The
the paper do not necessarily reflect those of the Ministry of Economy and Public Works and Services. Abstract: Stock markets are not merely casinos. A growing body of research suggests that access to...
Inflation and Financial Market Performance (2007)
John H. Boyd, John H. Boyd, Ross Levine, Ross Levine, Bruce D. Smith, Bruce D. Smith
of Minneapolis and University of Texas-Austin. We would like to thank Michelle Barnes for outstanding research assistance and
The Impact of Bank Regulations, Concentration, and Institutions on Bank Margins (2007)
Aslı Demirgüç-kunt, Luc Laeven, Ross Levine
Abstract: This paper examines the impact of bank regulations, concentration, inflation and national institutions on bank net interest margins using data on over 1,400 banks across 72 countries while...
Ross Levine, Sergio L. Schmukler, Luca Benzoni, Stijn Claessens, Valery Polknichenko, Helene Rey
What is the impact of firms that cross-list, issue depositary receipts, or raise capital in international stock markets on the liquidity of remaining firms in domestic markets? Using a panel of over...
2003d), “Bank Concentration and Crises (2007)
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-kunt, Ross Levine
Abstract: This paper studies the impact of bank concentration, regulations, and national institutions on the likelihood of suffering a systemic banking crisis. Using data on 79 countries over the...
Luca Benzoni, Stijn Claessens, Helene Rey, Monica Erpen, Dori Flanagan, Angela Marshall, ...
grateful for generous financial support from the BSI Gamma Foundation. Schmukler thanks the World Bank Latin American Regional Studies Program and Research Support Budget for financial support. The...
Delegated Monitors, Large and Small: The Development of Germany’s Banking System, 1800-1914 (2007)
Robert Chirinko, Marco Da Rin, Amil Dasgupta, Jeremy Edwards, William English, Nicola Fuchs, ...
Notes: Center Discussion Papers are preliminary materials circulated to stimulate discussions and critical comments.
Xin Chen provided extraordinary research assistance. We received helpful comments from (2007)
James R. Barth, Gerard Caprio, Ross Levine, Asli Demirguc-kunt, Simeon Djankov, Patrick Honohan, ...
the help of Iffath Sharif and Cindy Lee, as well as financial support from the World Bank.
Law, Politics, and Finance (2007)
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç-kunt, Ross Levine
Abstract: This paper assesses three established theories regarding the historical determinants of financial development and also proposes an augmented version of one of these theories. The law and...
A Retrospective, 1960-8 9 political instability, poor-ly (2007)
are low school attainment,
Bank Concentration: Cross-Country Evidence (2007)
Asli Demirguc-kunt, Ross Levine
extraordinary research assistance for this paper. Concentration in the banking industry may have far-ranging and long-lasting implications for financial sector efficiency, bank stability, industrial...
Financial Dependence and International Trade Thorsten Beck1 (2007)
The World Bank, Robert Cull, Bob King, Ross Levine, Colin Xu
Meeting of the Southern Economic Association are gratefully acknowledged. The usual disclaimer applies. The findings, interpretations and conclusions in this paper
William Easterly, World Bank, Patrick Honohan, Ross Levine, Frederic Mishkin
Abstract: The worldwide growth slowdown after 1975 was a major negative fiscal shock; lower growth lowers the present value of tax revenues and primary surpluses and thus makes a given level of debt...
Stock Markets, Banks, and Growth: Correlation or Causality (2007)
Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of stock markets and banks on economic growth using a panel data set for the period 1976-98 and applying recent GMM techniques developed for dynamic...
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç-kunt, Ross Levine
Abstract: A growing body of work suggests that cross-country differences in legal origin help explain differences in financial development. This paper empirically assesses two theories of why legal...
This paper describes the law and finance theory along with skeptical and competing views and reviews empirical evidence on both parts of the law and finance view. World Bank Policy Research Working...
Law, Endowments, and Finance (2007)
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç-kunt, Ross Levine
This paper assesses two theories regarding the historical determinants of international differences in financial development. The law and finance theory holds that legal traditions differ in terms of...
SMEs, Growth and Poverty: Crosscountry Evidence (2005)
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-kunt, Ross Levine, Maria Carkovic, George Clarke, Simeon Djankov, ...
Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between the relative size of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector, economic growth, and poverty alleviation using a new database on the share of...
Legal Institutions and Financial Development (2005)
A burgeoning literature finds that financial development exerts a first-order impact on long-run economic growth. Levine and Zervos (1998) show that banking and stock market development are good...
SMEs, Growth, and Poverty: (2005)
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-kunt, Ross Levine
This paper explores the relationship between the relative size of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector, economic growth, and poverty using a new database on the share of SME labor in the...
Law and Firms' Access to Finance (2005)
This article examines how a country’s legal origin influences the operation of its financial system by using firm-level survey data across a broad cross-section of countries on the obstacles that...
Bank Concentration and Competition: An Evolution in the Making (2004)
Berger, Allen N., Levine, Ross.
Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking - Volume 36, Number 3 (Part 2), June 2004
Regulations, Market Structure, Institutions, and the Cost of Financial Intermediation (2004)
Journal of Money, Credit, and Banking - Volume 36, Number 3 (Part 2), June 2004
Finance and growth: Theory, evidence, and mechanisms (2004)
Ross Levine, Asli Demirguc-kunt, Michael Klein, Raghu Rajan, Bruce Smith, Luigi Zingales Provided
helpful comments. Nobel Prize Laureates and other influential economists disagree sharply about the role of the financial sector in economic growth. Finance is not even discussed in a collection of...
Mihir A. Desai, C. Fritz Foley, Kristin J. Forbes, Greg Brown, Anusha Chari, Serdar Dinc, ...
The statistical analysis of firm-level data on U.S. multinational companies was conducted at the International Investment Division, Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce under...
Este artículo analiza el efecto de restringir la entrada de bancos extranjeros sobre los márgenes bancarios netos mientras se controla por (a) los impedimentos a la entrada de bancos, (b) el grado...
Este artículo analiza el efecto de restringir la entrada de bancos extranjeros sobre los márgenes bancarios netos mientras se controla por (a) los impedimentos a la entrada de bancos, (b) el grado...
2004) “Stock markets, banks, and growth: panel evidence (2003)
Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of stock markets and banks on economic growth using a panel data set for the period 1976-98 and applying recent GMM techniques developed for dynamic...
Bank regulation and supervision: what works best (2003)
James R. Barth, Gerard Caprio, Ross Levine, Jel Classification, Asli Demirgüç-kunt, Simeon Djankov, ...
the help of Iffath Sharif and Cindy Lee, as well as financial support from the World Bank. Xin Chen provided extraordinary research assistance. We received helpful comments from
Bank regulation and supervision: what works best (2003)
James R. Barth, Gerard Caprio, Ross Levine, Jel Classification, Asli Demirgüç-kunt, Simeon Djankov, ...
the help of Iffath Sharif and Cindy Lee, as well as financial support from the World Bank. Xin Chen provided extraordinary research assistance. We received helpful comments from
Governance and bank valuation (2003)
Gerard Caprio, Luc Laeven, Ross Levine, Thorsten Beck, George Benston, Sugato Bhattacharyya, ...
Which public policies and ownership structures enhance the governance of banks? This paper constructs a new database on the ownership of banks internationally and then assesses the ramifications of...
Bank-Based or Market-Based Financial Systems: Which is Better? (2002)
For over a century, economists and policy makers have debated the relative merits of bank-based versus market-based financial systems. Recent research, however, argues that classifying countries as...
Industry Growth and Capital Allocation: Does Having a Market- or Bank-Based System Matter (2002)
Thorsten Beck, Ross Levine, Jel Classification, Nicola Cetorelli, Robert Cull, Patrick Honohan, ...
Abstract: Are market-based or bank-based financial systems better at financing the expansion of industries that depend heavily on external finance, facilitating the formation of new establishments,...
and Raj Singh gave helpful feedback on an earlier draft, but are in no way implicated here. The findings do not necessarily represent the opinions of The World Bank, its management, the Executive...
Hali J. Edison, Ross Levine, Luca Ricci, Torsten Sløk, Hali J. Edison, Ross Levine, ...
This paper uses new data and new econometric techniques to investigate the impact of international financial integration on economic growth and also to assess whether this relationship depends on the...
The Regulation and Supervision of Banks around the World: A New Database (2001)
Barth, James R., Caprio, Gerard., Levine, Ross.
Brookings-Wharton Papers on Financial Services - 2001
The Impact of Inflation on Financial Sector Performance (2001)
John H. Boyd, Ross Levine, Bruce D. Smith
Abstract: A growing theoretical literature describes mechanisms whereby even predictable increases in the rate of inflation interfere with the ability of the financial sector to allocate resources...
2001b). “The Regulation and Supervision of Bank Around the World: A New Database (2001)
Kaufman and other participants at the January 2001 Brookings-Wharton Papers on Financial Services, 4 th Annual Conference, "Integrating Emerging Market Countries Into Global Financial...
Public versus Private Ownership: The Current State of the Debate (2001)
Mary M. Shirley, Patrick Walsh, Philip Keefer, Ross Levine, Ken Sokoloff, L. Colin, ...
interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the World Bank, its Executive Directors, or the countries...
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES DEPOSIT INSURANCE AROUND THE GLOBE: WHERE DOES IT WORK? (2001)
Edward J. Kane, Jerry Caprio, Stijn Claessens, Ross Levine, Edward J. Kane, ...
discussions. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and not necessarily those of...
Legal Theories of Financial Development (2001)
Beck, Thorsten, Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
This paper examines legal theories of international differences in financial development. The law and finance theory stresses that legal traditions differ in terms of (i) their emphasis on the rights...
Easterly, William, Levine, Ross
The article documents five stylized facts of economic growth. (1) The “residual” (total factor productivity, tfp) rather than factor accumulation accounts for most of the income and growth...
Por más de un siglo, los economistas y quienes tienen a cargo la política económica han debatido las ventajas relativas a los sistemas financieros basados en el mercado bursátil con respecto a...
Por más de un siglo, los economistas y quienes tienen a cargo la política económica han debatido las ventajas relativas a los sistemas financieros basados en el mercado bursátil con respecto a...
Financial Intermediation and Growth: Causality and Causes (2000)
Ross Levine, Norman Loayza, Thorsten Beck
This paper evaluates (1) whether the exogenous component of financial intermediary development influences economic growth and (2) whether cross-country differences in legal and accounting systems...
Thorsten Beck, Ross Levine, Jel Classification
Abstract: Are market-based or bank-based financial systems better at financing industries that depend heavily on external finance? Are market- or bank-based financial systems better at facilitating...
A User's Guide to Banking Crises (2000)
John H. Boyd, Pedro Gomis, Sungkyu Kwak, Bruce D. Smith, Asli Demirguc-kunt, Ross Levine, ...
their data available to us, and for their helpful input on several issues. We would also like to thank the World Bank for their support of this research. Of course we alone are responsible for any...
Bank-Based or Market-Based Financial Systems: Which is Better (2000)
Abstract: For over a century, economists and policy makers have debated the relative merits of bank-based versus market-based financial systems. Recently, however, proponents of the legalbased view...
Bank-Based or Market-Based Financial Systems: Which is Better (2000)
Franklin Allen, Maria Carkovic, Nicola Cetorelli, Karla Hoff, Kevin Kordana, ...
For over a century, economists and policy makers have debated the relative merits of bank-based versus market-based financial systems. Recent research, however, argues that classifying countries as...
A New Database on the Structure and Development of the Financial Sector (2000)
Beck, Thorsten, Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
This article introduces a new database of indicators of financial structure and financial development across countries and over time. The database is unique in that it combines a wide variety of...
A new database on financial development and structure (1999)
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç-kunt, Ross Levine
Abstract: This paper introduces a new database of indicators of financial development and structure across countries and over time. This database is unique in that it unites a wide variety of...
The Legal Environment, Banks, and Long-Run Economic Growth Ross Levine (1998)
This paper examines the relationship between the legal system and banking development and traces this connection through to long-run rates of per capita GDP growth, capital stock growth, and...
Troubles with the Neighbours: Africa's Problem, Africa's Opportunity (1998)
Easterly, William, Levine, Ross
There is systematic contagion across national borders. Favourable or unfavourable growth performance of one's neighbours tends to influence one's own long-run growth rate. Policy choices are also...
Stock Market Development and Financial Intermediaries: Stylized Facts (1996)
Demirgüç-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
World stock markets are booming, and emerging stock markets account for a disproportionate share of this growth. Yet economists lack a common concept or measure of stock market development. This...
Stock Market Development and Long-Run Growth (1996)
Is the financial system important for economic growth? One line of research argues that it is not; another line stresses the importance of the financial system in mobilizing savings, allocating...
REFORMING FINANCE IN TRANSITIONAL SOCIALIST ECONOMIES (1994)
Financial reforms initiated in most transitional socialist economies do not yet adequately provide many of the financial services associated with market-oriented financial systems. Such...
AN INTERNATIONAL ARBITRAGE PRICING MODEL WITH PPP DEVIATIONS (1989)
This paper derives an intertemporal, international arbitrage pricing model that relaxes more assumptions than previous asset pricing paradigms. The analysis shows how risk, risk premia, and the...
Internationalization and Stock Market Liquidity
What is the impact of internationalization (firms raising capital and trading in international markets) on the liquidity of the remaining firms in domestic markets? To address this question, we...
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
This paper explores the relationship between the relative size of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector, economic growth, and poverty alleviation using a new database on the share of SME labor...
Is There a Diversification Discount in Financial Conglomerates?
This paper investigates whether the diversity of activities conducted by financial institutions influences their market valuations. We find that there is a diversification discount: The market values...
Law, Endowments, and Property Rights
While scholars have hypothesized about the sources of variation in property rights for over 2500 years, it is only very recently that researchers have begun to test these theories empirically. This...
Legal Theories of Financial Development
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Ross Levine
This paper examines legal theories of international differences in financial development. The law and finance theory stresses that legal traditions differ in terms of (i) their emphasis on the rights...
Internationalization and the Evolution of Corporate Valuation
Ross Levine, Sergio L. Schmukler
By documenting the evolution of Tobin's "q" before, during, and after firms internationalize, this paper provides evidence on the bonding, segmentation, and market timing theories of...
A Sensitivity Analysis of Cross-Country Growth Regressions.
A vast literature uses cross-country regressions to search for empirical linkages between long-run growth rates and a variety of economic policy, political, and institutional indicators. This paper...
Finance and growth : Schumpeter might be right
Joseph Schumpeter argued in 1911 that the services provided by financial intermediaries - mobilizing savings, evaluating projects, managing risk, monitoring managers, and facilitating transactions...
Looking at the facts : what we know about policy and growth from cross-country analysis
What has the profession learned from cross-country regressions about the links between long-run growth and indicators of fiscal, monetary, trade, financial, and exchange-rate policies? The authors...
Stock market development and financial intermediary growth : a research agenda
Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
Empirical evidence suggests that financial services - such as mobilizing savings, managing risk, allocating resources, and facilitating transactions - influence and are influenced by economic...
Africa's growth tragedy : a retrospective, 1960-89
Easterly, William, Levine, Ross
Africa's economic history since 1960 fits the classical definition of tragedy: potential unfulfilled with disastrous consequences. The authors use one mehthodology - cross-country regressions - to...
Financial development and economic growth : views and agenda
The author argues that the preponderance of theoretical reasoning and empirical evidence suggests a positive first order relationship between financial development and economic growth. There is...
Stock markets, banks, and economic growth
Using data on 49 countries from 1976 to 1993, the authors investigate whether measures of stock market liquidity, size, volatility, and integration in world capital markets predict future rates of...
Caprio, Gerard, Laeven, Luc, Levine, Ross
Which public policies and ownership structures enhance the governance of banks? The authors construct a new database on the ownership of banks internationally and then assess the ramifications of...
Finance, Inequality, and Poverty: Cross-Country Evidence
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
While substantial research finds that financial development boosts overall economic growth, we study whether financial development disproportionately raises the incomes of the poor and alleviates...
Internationalization and Stock Market Liquidity*
What is the impact of internationalization (firms raising capital and trading in international markets) on the liquidity of the remaining firms in domestic markets? To address this question, we...
Finance, Firm Size, and Growth
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Luc Laeven, Ross Levine
This paper examines whether financial development boosts the growth of small firms more than large firms and hence provides information on the mechanisms through which financial development fosters...
Bank-Based or Market-Based Financial Systems: Which is Better?
For over a century, economists and policy makers have debated the relative merits of bank-based versus market-based financial systems. Recent research, however, argues that classifying countries as...
Capital fundamentalism, economic development, and economic growth
Few economic ideas are as intuitive as the notion that increasing investment is the best way to raise future output. This idea was the basis for the theory"capital fundamentalism."Under this view,...
Finance and the sources of growth
Beck, Thorsten, Levine, Ross, Loayza, Norman
The authors evaluate whether the level of development in the banking sector exerts a causal impact on economic growth and its sources-total factor productivity growth, physical capital accumulation,...
Law and finance : why does legal origin matter?
Beck, Thorsten, Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
A growing body of work suggests that cross-country differences in legal origin help explain differences in financial development. The authors assess two theories of why legal origin influences...
Law and firms'access to finance
Beck, Thorsten, Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
Why does a country's legal origin influence its firms'access to finance? Using data from over 4,000 firms in 38 countries, the authors show that firms in countries with French legal origin face...
Finance, inequality, and poverty: cross-country evidence
Beck, Thorsten, Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
While substantial research finds that financial development boosts overall economic growth, the authors study whether financial development is pro-poor: Does financial development disproportionately...
Stock market development and long-run growth
The authors empirically evaluate the relationship between stock market development and long-term growth. The data suggest that stock market development is positively associated with economic growth....
Capital control liberalization and stock market development
The authors address two questions: What happens to stock market size, liquidity, volatility, and integration with world capital markets after capital controls are liberalized? And what is the...
Financial structure and economic development - firm, industry, and country evidence
Beck, Thorsten, Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross, Maksimovic, Vojislav
The authors explore the relationship between financial structure - the degree to which a financial system is market- or bank-based - and economicdevelopment. They use three methodologies: 1) The...
Small and medium enterprises, growth, and poverty : cross-country evidence
The authors explore the relationship between the relative size of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, economic growth, and poverty using a new database on the share of SME labor in the...
Gerard Caprio, Luc Laeven, Ross Levine
Which public policies and ownership structures enhance the governance of banks? This paper constructs a new database on the ownership of banks internationally and then assesses the ramifications of...
Financial regulation and performance : cross-country evidence
Barth, James R., Caprio Jr., Gerard, Levine, Ross
Costly bank failures in the past two decades have focused attention on the need to find ways to improve the performance of different countries'financial systems. Belief is overwhelming that financial...
Beck, Thorsten, Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
The authors assess three established theories about the historical determinants of financial development. They also propose an augmented version of one of these theories. The law and finance view,...
The regulation and supervision of banks around the world - a new database
Barth, James R., Caprio Jr, Gerard, Levine, Ross
International consultants on bank regulation, and supervision for developing countries, often base their advice on how their home country does things, for lack of information on practice in other...
Bank supervision and corporate finance
Beck, Thorsten, Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
The authors examine the impact of bank supervision on the financing obstacles faced by almost 5,000 corporations across 49 countries. They find that firms in countries with strong official...
Beck, Thorsten, Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
The authors study the impact of bank concentration, regulations, and national institutions on the likelihood of suffering a systemic banking crisis. Using data on 79 countries over the period...
Lu, Xiaohui, Levine, Ross, Tong, Wei, Wernig, Gerlinde, Pikman, Yana, Zarnegar, Sara, ...
A recurrent somatic activating mutation in the nonreceptor tyrosine kinase JAK2 (JAK2V617F) occurs in the majority of patients with the myeloproliferative disorders polycythemia vera, essential...
Regulations, Market Structure, Institutions, and the Cost of Financial Intermediation.
Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Laeven, Luc, Levine, Ross
This paper examines the impact of bank regulations, market structure, and national institutions on bank net interest margins and overhead costs using data on over 1400 banks across 72 countries while...
Tropics, Germs, and Crops: How Endowments Influence Economic Development
Does economic development depend on geographic endowments like temperate instead of tropical location, the ecological conditions shaping diseases, or an environment good for grains or certain cash...
New Data, New Doubts: Revisiting "Aid, Policies, and Growth"
William Easterly, Ross Levine, David Roodman
The Burnside and Dollar (2000) finding that aid raises growth in a good policy environment has had an important influence on policy and academic debates. We conduct a data gathering exercise that...
Finance and Growth: Theory and Evidence
Levine, Ross, Philippe Aghion, Steven Durlauf
This paper reviews, appraises, and critiques theoretical and empirical research on the connections between the operation of the financial system and economic growth. While subject to ample...
Lu, Xiaohui, Levine, Ross, Tong, Wei, Wernig, Gerlinde, Pikman, Yana, Zarnegar, Sara, ...
A recurrent somatic activating mutation in the nonreceptor tyrosine kinase JAK2 (JAK2V617F) occurs in the majority of patients with the myeloproliferative disorders polycythemia vera, essential...
Is There a Diversification Discount in Financial Conglomerates?
This paper investigates whether the diversity of activities conducted by financial institutions influences their market valuations. We find that there is a diversification discount: The market values...
Financial Intermediation and Growth: Causality and Causes
Thorsten Beck, Ross Levine, Norman Loayza
This paper evaluates (1) whether the exogenous component of financial intermediary development influences economic growth and (2) whether cross-country differences in legal and accounting systems...
Bank Concentration: Chile and International Comparisons
Is banking sector concentration associated with negative outcomes internationally? This paper finds that the answer is "no." Greater bank concentration is not strongly associated with negative...
Financial Regulation And Performance: Cross-Country Evidence
James R. Barth, Gerard Caprio Jr., Ross Levine
This paper examines three questions. First, do countries with relatively weak government/ bureaucratic systems impose harsher regulatory restrictions on activities of banks? Second, do countries with...
Finance and Growth: New Evidence and Policy Analyses for Chile
Given conflicting theoretical predictions about the impact of stock markets and banks on economic growth, this paper empirically evaluates this debate. The results emphasize the growth-enhancing role...
It's Not Factor Accumulation: Stylized Facts and Growth Models
We document five stylized facts of economic growth. (1) The “residual” rather than factor accumulation accounts for most of the income and growth differences across nations. (2) Income diverges...
Denying Foreign Bank Entry: Implications For Bank Interest Margins
This paper examines the impact of restricting foreign bank entry on bank net interest margins while controlling for (a) impediments to domestic bank entry, (b) the degree of foreign bank ownership of...
Finance, inequality and the poor
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Ross Levine
Financial development disproportionately boosts incomes of the poorest quintile and reduces income inequality. About 40% of the long-run impact of financial development on the income growth of the...
International Financial Integration and Economic Growth
Hali J. Edison, Ross Levine, Luca Antonio Ricci, Torsten Sløk
This paper uses new data and new econometric techniques to investigate the impact of international financial integration on economic growth and also to assess whether this relationship depends on the...
Are bank-based or market-based financial systems better?
For over a century, economists and policy makers have debated the relative merits of bank-based versus market-based financial systems. Recently, however, proponents of the legal-based view of...
Big Bad Banks? The Impact of U.S. Branch Deregulation on Income Distribution
Thorsten Beck, Ross Levine, Alexey Levkov
Policymakers and economists disagree about the impact of bank regulations on the distribution of income. Exploiting cross-state and cross-time variation, we test whether liberalizing restrictions on...
Big bad banks ? the impact of U.S. branch deregulation on income distribution
Beck, Thorsten, Levine, Ross, Levkov, Alexey
Policymakers and economists disagree about the impact of bank regulations on the distribution of income. Exploiting cross-state and cross-time variation, the authors test whether liberalizing...
Complex Ownership Structures and Corporate Valuations
The bulk of corporate governance theory examines the agency problems that arise from two extreme ownership structures: 100 percent small shareholders or one large, controlling owner combined with...
Law and Finance: why Does Legal Origin Matter?
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
New research suggests that cross-country differences in legal origin help explain differences in financial development. This paper empirically assesses two theories of why legal origin influences...
Stock Markets, Banks, and Economic Growth.
Do well-functioning stock markets and banks promote long-run economic growth? This paper shows that stock market liquidity and banking development both positively predict growth, capital...
Law, Endowments and Property Rights
While scholars have hypothesized about the sources of variation in property rights for over 2500 years, it is only very recently that researchers have begun to test these theories empirically. This...
The financial system and public enterprise reform : concepts and cases
Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
Public enterprise reform is an important part of policy strategies to accelerate economic growth in many countries. The authors identify two distinct but complementary approaches to public enterprise...
Stock market development and financial intermediaries : stylized facts
Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
World stock markets are booming. Between 1982 and 1993, stock market capitalization grew from $2 trillion to $10 trillion, an average 15 percent a year. A disproportionate amount of this growth was...
Financial intermediation and growth : Causality and causes
Levine, Ross, Loayza, Norman, Beck, Thorsten
The authors evaluate: a) whether the level of development of financial intermediaries exerts a casual influence on economic growth; and b) whether cross-country differences in legal and accounting...
Bank-based and market-based financial systems - cross-country comparisons
Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
What are the relative advantages and disadvantages of bank-based financial systems (as in Germany and Japan) and market-based financial systems (as in England and the United States). Does financial...
A new database on financial development and structure
Beck, Thorsten, Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
The authors introduce a new database of indicators of financial development and structure across countries and over time. This database is unique in that it unites a variety of indicators that...
Banking systems around the globe : do regulation and ownership affect the performance and stability?
Barth, James R., Caprio, Gerard, Levine, Ross
The authors report cross-country data on commercial bank regulation and ownership in more than 60 countries. They evaluate the links between different regulatory/ownership practices in those...
New firm formation and industry growth - does having a market- or bank-based system matter?
The authors find no evidence for the superiority of either market-based or bank-based financial systems for industries dependent on external financing. But they find overwhelming evidence that...
Stock markets, banks, and growth : correlation or causality?
The authors investigate the impact of stock markets and banks on economic growth using a panel data set for 1976-98 and applying recent generalized method of moments (GMM) techniques developed for...
Bank regulation and supervision : what works best?
Barth, James R., Caprio Jr., Gerard, Levine, Ross
The authors draw on their new database on bank regulation and supervision in 107 countries to assess different governmental approaches to bank regulation and supervision and evaluate the efficacy of...
The impact of bank regulations, concentration, and institutions on bank margins
Demirguc, Asli, Laeven, Luc, Levine, Ross
This paper examines the impact of bank regulations, concentration, inflation, and national institutions on bank net interest margins using data from over 1,400 banks across 72 countries while...
Levine, Ross, Schmukler, Sergio L.
What is the impact of firms that cross-list, issue depositary receipts, or raise capital in international stock markets on the liquidity of remaining firms in domestic markets? Using a panel of over...
Legal institutions and financial development
A burgeoning literature finds that financial development exerts a first-order impact on long-run economic growth, which raises critical questions, such as why do some countries have well-developed...
The Corporate Governance of Banks - a concise discussion of concepts and evidence
The author examines the corporate governance of banks. When banks efficiently mobilize and allocate funds, this lowers the cost of capital to firms, boosts capital formation, and stimulates...
Finance, firm size, and growth
Beck, Thorsten, Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Laeven, Luc, Levine, Ross
The authors examine whether financial development boosts the growth of small firms more than large firms and hence provides information on the mechanisms through which financial development fosters...
Internationalization and the evolution of corporate valuation
Gozzi, Juan Carlos, Levine, Ross, Schmukler, Sergio L.
By documenting the evolution of Tobin's q before, during, and after firms internationalize, the authors provide evidence on the bonding, segmentation, and market timing theories of...
Stock markets, growth, and policy
This paper shows how stock markets can accelerate growth and how policy can affect that growth either directly (by altering investment incentives) or indirectly (by changing the incentives underlying...
Cross-country studies of growth and policy : methodological, conceptual, and statistical problems
This paper reviews the conceptual, methodological, and statistical problems associated with drawing inferences from cross-country regressions. The authors elaborate on the particular problems...
A sensitivity analysis of cross-country growth regressions
A vast amount of literature uses cross-country regressions to find empirical links between policy indicators and long-run average growth rates. The authors study whether the conclusions from existing...
How do national policies affect long-run growth? : a research agenda
Easterly, William, King, Robert, Levine, Ross, Rebelo, Sergio
The authors suggest that there are important opportunities to empirically evaluate the theoretically predicted channels from policy to growth. They propose a research agenda based on the endogenous...
Financial indicators and growth in a cross section of countries
The authors use existing measures of the financial system - and construct many new measures - to document the relationship between the financial system and long-run growth in a cross-section of...
Financial structures and economic development
The author constructs a model that captures the two-way nature of the relationship between financial and economic development - and allows societies at different levels of economic development and...
Old debts and new beginnings : a policy choice in transitional socialist economies
The authors examine the decisions policy-makers in transitional socialist economies must make: how to define the asset liability structure of state owned enterprises and banks as they are privatized....
Caprio, Gerard Jr., Levine, Ross
In the late 1980s, transitional socialist economies (TSEs) in Central and Eastern Europe were only somewhat more sophisticated than shell money systems: savings books or currency had to be used for...
How Much Bang for the Buck? Mexico and Dollarization.
Two arguments advanced in favor of Mexico abandoning the peso and adopting the U.S. dollar are to lower exchange rate volatility and inflation. We are not able to identify an independent link between...
Stock Markets, Growth, and Tax Policy.
An extensive literature documents the role of financial markets in economic development. To help explain this relationship, this paper constructs an endogenous growth model in which a stock market...
Finance and economic opportunity
Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
An influential body of theoretical research and an emerging line of empirical work suggest that the operation of the formal financial system affects the degree to which economic opportunities are...
Finance, financial sector policies, and long-run growth
Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
The first part of this paper reviews the literature on the relation between finance and growth. The second part of the paper reviews the literature on the historical and policy determinants of...
Introduction: Bank concentration and competition: an evolution in the making
Allen N. Berger, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Ross Levine, Joseph G. Haubrich
The consolidation of banks around the world in recent years is intensifying public policy debates on the influences of concentration and competition on the performance of banks. In light of these...
Regulations, market structure, institutions, and the cost of financial intermediation
Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Luc Laeven, Ross Levine
This paper examines the impact of bank regulations, market structure, and national institutions on bank net interest margins and overhead costs using data on over 1400 banks across 72 countries while...
International Financial Liberalization and Economic Growth.
This paper pulls together existing theory and evidence to assess whether international financial liberalization, by improving the functioning of domestic financial markets and banks, accelerates...
Financial Development and Economic Growth: Views and Agenda
This critique argues that the preponderance of theoretical reasoning and empirical evidence suggests a positive, first-order relationship between financial development and economic growth. The body...
SMEs, Growth, and Poverty: Cross-Country Evidence
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
Firm size, market structure, economic development, O1, O2, L11, L25,
An international arbitrage pricing model with PPP deviations
Arbitrage ; Prices ; Foreign exchange
The pricing of forward exchange rates
Foreign exchange futures ; Prices ; Foreign exchange rates
External debt and developing country growth
Steven B. Kamin, Robert B. Kahn, Ross Levine
Developing countries ; Debt
Financial structure and economic development
Economic development ; Financial institutions
How much bang for the buck? Mexico and dollarization
Mexico ; Inflation (Finance)
Inflation and financial market performance
John H. Boyd, Ross Levine, Bruce D. Smith
Economic development
Policy, Technology Adoption and Growth
Easterly, William, King, Robert G, Levine, Ross, Rebelo, Sérgio
This paper describes a simple model of technology adoption which combines the two engines of growth emphasized in the recent growth literature: human capital accumulation and technological progress....
The Legal Environment, Banks, and Long-Run Economic Growth.
This paper examines the relationship between the legal system and banking development and traces this connection through to long-run rates of per capita GDP growth, capital stock growth, and...
Africa's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions.
Easterly, William, Levine, Ross
Explaining cross-country differences in growth rates requires not only an understanding of the link between growth and public policies, but also an understanding of why countries choose different...
Finance and Growth: Schumpeter Might Be Right.
The authors present cross-country evidence consistent with Joseph Schumpeter's view that the financial system can promote economic growth, using data on eighty countries over the 1960-89 period....
Stock Market Development and Long-Run Growth.
Is the financial system important for economic growth? One line of research argues that it is not; another line stresses the importance of the financial system in mobilizing savings, allocating...
Stock Market Development and Financial Intermediaries: Stylized Facts.
Demirguc-Kunt, Ash, Levine, Ross
World stock markets are booming, and emerging stock markets account for a disproportionate share of this growth. Yet economists lack a common concept or measure of stock market development. This...
An International Arbitrage Pricing Model with PPP Deviations.
This paper derives an intertemporal, international arbitrage pricing model that relaxes more assumptions than previous asset pricing paradigms. The analysis shows how risk, risk premia, and the...
Troubles with the Neighbours: Africa's Problem, Africa's Opportunity.
Easterly, William, Levine, Ross
There is systematic contagion across national borders. Favorable or unfavorable growth performance of one's neighbors tends to influence one's own long-run growth rate. Policy choices are also...
Racial Discrimination and Competition
Ross Levine, Alexey Levkov, Yona Rubinstein
This paper assesses the impact of competition on racial discrimination. The dismantling of inter- and intrastate bank restrictions by U.S. states from the mid-1970s to the mid-1990s reduced financial...
Finance, Firm Size, and Growth
THORSTEN BECK, ASLI DEMIRGUC-KUNT, LUC LAEVEN, ROSS LEVINE
Although research shows that financial development accelerates aggregate economic growth, economists have not resolved conflicting theoretical predictions and ongoing policy disputes about the...
Internationalization and the evolution of corporate valuation
Gozzi, Juan Carlos, Levine, Ross, Schmukler, Sergio L.
By documenting the evolution of Tobin's q before, during, and after firms internationalize, this paper provides evidence on the bonding, segmentation, and market-timing theories of...
Bank Governance, Regulation, and Risk Taking
This paper conducts the first empirical assessment of theories concerning relationships among risk taking by banks, their ownership structures, and national bank regulations. We focus on conflicts...
Bank regulations are changing : for better or worse ?
This paper presents new and official survey information on bank regulations in 142 countries and makes comparisons with two earlier surveys. The data do not suggest that countries have primarily...
Patterns of international capital raisings
Gozzi, Juan Carlos, Levine, Ross, Schmukler, Sergio L.
This paper documents several new patterns associated with firms issuing securities in foreign markets that motivate the need for and help guide future research. Besides noting that these...
Financial development and growth: where do we stand?
In spite of the recent theoretical and empirical work that suggests that financial Systems exert a first-order, causal impact on economic growth, economists are still not very able of providing...
The operation of the formal financial system is profoundly important for the poor. Financial development influences the degree to which economic opportunities are shaped by talent rather than by...
Policy, Technology Adoption, and Growth
William Easterly, Robert King, Ross Levine, Sergio Rebelo
This paper describes a simple model of technology adoption which combines the two engines of growth emphasized in the recent growth literature: human capital accumulation and technological progress....
Industry Growth and Capital Allocation: Does Having a Market- or Bank-Based System Matter?
Are market-based or bank-based financial systems better at financing the expansion of industries that depend heavily on external finance, facilitating the formation of new establishments, and...
Stock Markets, Banks, and Growth: Panel Evidence
This paper investigates the impact of stock markets and banks on economic growth using a panel data set for the period 1976-98 and applying recent GMM techniques developed for dynamic panels. On...
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
This paper assesses two theories regarding the historical determinants of international differences in financial development. The law and finance theory holds that legal traditions differ in terms of...
Tropics, Germs, and Crops: How Endowments Influence Economic Development
Does economic development depend on geographic endowments like temperate instead of tropical location, the ecological conditions shaping diseases, or an environment good for grains or certain cash...
Bank-Based or Market-Based Financial Systems: Which is Better?
For over a century, economists and policy makers have debated the relative merits of bank-based versus market-based financial systems. Recent research, however, argues that classifying countries as...
International Financial Integration and Economic Growth
Hali J. Edison, Ross Levine, Luca Ricci, Torsten Slok
This paper uses new data and new econometric techniques to investigate the impact of international financial integration on economic growth and also to assess whether this relationship depends on the...
Bank Regulation and Supervision: What Works Best?
James R. Barth, Gerard Caprio, Jr., Ross Levine
This paper uses our new database on bank regulation and supervision in 107 countries to assess the relationship between specific regulatory and supervisory practices and banking-sector development,...
Ross Levine, Sergio L. Schmukler
What is the impact of firms that cross-list, issue depositary receipts, or raise capital in international stock markets on the liquidity of remaining firms in domestic markets? Using a panel of over...
Bank Supervision and Corporate Finance
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
We examine the impact of bank supervision on the financing obstacles faced by almost 5,000 corporations across 49 countries. We find that firms in countries with strong official supervisory agencies...
New Data, New doubts: A Comment on Burnside and Dollar's "Aid, Policies, and Growth" (2000)
William Easterly, Ross Levine, David Roodman
The Burnside and Dollar (2000, AER) finding that aid raises growth in a good policy environment has had an important influence on policy and academic debates. We conduct a data gathering exercise...
Regulations, Market Structure, Institutions, and the Cost of Financial Intermediation
Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Luc Laeven, Ross Levine
This paper examines the impact of bank regulations, market structure, and national institutions on bank net interest margins and overhead costs using data on over 1,400 banks across 72 countries...
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
Motivated by public policy debates about bank consolidation and conflicting theoretical predictions about the relationship between the market structure of the banking industry and bank fragility,...
Legal Institutions and Financial Development
This paper provides a concise, selective review of research on the role of legal institutions in shaping the operation of financial systems. While a burgeoning literature finds that financial...
Legal Institutions and Financial Development
Why do some countries have growth-enhancing financial systems, while others do not? Why have some countries developed the necessary investor protection laws and contract-enforcement mechanisms to...
Law and Firms' Access to Finance
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
This paper contributes to the literature on how a country's legal origin influences the operation of its financial system by using firm-level survey data on the obstacles that firms face in raising...
Finance and Growth: Theory and Evidence
This paper reviews, appraises, and critiques theoretical and empirical research on the connections between the operation of the financial system and economic growth. While subject to ample...
Bank Supervision and Corruption in Lending
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
Which commercial bank supervisory policies ease or intensify the degree to which bank corruption is an obstacle to firms raising external finance? Based on new data from more than 2,500 firms across...
Bank Concentration and Fragility: Impact and Mechanics
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
Public policy debates and theoretical disputes motivate this paper%u2019s examination of (i) the relationship between bank concentration and banking system fragility and (ii) the mechanisms...
Complex Ownership Structures and Corporate Valuations
The bulk of corporate governance theory examines the agency problems that arise from two extreme ownership structures: 100 percent small shareholders or one large, controlling owner combined with...
Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
This is the first broad cross-country assessment of the ties between financial structure—the mix of financial instruments, institutions, and markets in a given economy—and economic growth since...
Special issue: Banking and bank regulation: Challenges for the future
Beck, Thorsten, Laeven, Luc, Levine, Ross, Pennacchi, George
Bank Regulations are Changing: For Better or Worse?
James R Barth, Gerard Caprio, Ross Levine
This paper presents new and official survey information on bank regulations in 142 countries and makes comparisons with two earlier surveys. The data do not suggest that countries have primarily...
Finance et opportunité économique
Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Ross Levine
An influential body of theoretical research and an emerging line of empirical work suggest that the operation of the formal financial system affects the degree to which economic opportunities are...
Internationalization and Stock Market Liquidity
Ross Levine, Sergio L. Schmukler
What is the impact of internationalization (firms raising capital and trading in international markets) on the liquidity of the remaining firms in domestic markets? To address this question, we...
Financial institutions and markets across countries and over time - data and analysis
Beck , Thorsten, Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
This paper introduces the updated and expanded version of the Financial Development and Structure Database and presents recent trends in structure and development of financial institutions and...
Patterns of International Capital Raisings
Juan Carlos Gozzi, Ross Levine, Sergio L. Schmukler
This paper documents several new patterns associated with firms issuing stocks and bonds in foreign markets that motivate the need for and help guide the direction of future research. Three major...
Finance and inequality : theory and evidence
Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, Levine, Ross
This paper critically reviews the literature on finance and inequality, highlighting substantive gaps in the literature. Finance plays a crucial role in most theories of persistent inequality....
Finance and Inequality: Theory and Evidence
Asli Demirguc-Kunt, Ross Levine
This paper critically reviews the literature on finance and inequality, highlighting substantive gaps in the literature. Finance plays a crucial role in most theories of persistent inequality....
Barth,James R., Caprio,Gerard, Levine,Ross
This volume assembles and presents a new database on bank regulation in over 150 countries (included also on CD). It offers the first comprehensive cross-country assessment of the impact of bank...
Barth,James R., Caprio,Gerard, Levine,Ross
This volume assembles and presents a new database on bank regulation in over 150 countries (included also on CD). It offers the first comprehensive cross-country assessment of the impact of bank...
SMEs, growth, and poverty: Cross-Country Evidence
Thorsten Beck, Asli Demirgüç-Kunt, Ross Levine
Citation: Thorsten Beck; Asli Demirgüç-Kunt ; Ross Levine, "SMEs, growth, and poverty: Cross-Country Evidence", hdl:1902.1/12886
Bank governance, regulation and risk taking
This paper conducts the first empirical assessment of theories concerning risk taking by banks, their ownership structures, and national bank regulations. We focus on conflicts between bank managers...
Financial Innovation and Endogenous Growth
Stelios Michalopoulos, Luc Laeven, Ross Levine
We model technological and financial innovation as reflecting the decisions of profit maximizing agents and explore the implications for economic growth. We start with a Schumpeterian endogenous...
Financial Innovation and Endogenous Growth
Laeven, Luc, Levine, Ross, Michalopoulos, Stelios
We model technological and financial innovation as reflecting the decisions of profit maximizing agents and explore the implications for economic growth. We start with a Schumpeterian endogenous...