The Great Reversals: The Politics of Financial Development in the 20th Century / Raghuram G. Rajan, Luigi Zingales.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rajan, Raghuram G.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Zingales, Luigi.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w8178.

NBER working paper series no. w8178

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

The Great Reversals

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2001.

Summary:

We show that the development of the financial sector does not change monotonically over time. In particular, we find that by most measures, countries were more financially developed in 1913 than in 1980 and only recently have they surpassed their 1913 levels. This pattern is inconsistent with most recent theories of why cross-country differences in financial development do not track differences in economic development, since these theories are based upon time-invariant factors, such as a country's legal origin. We propose instead an 'interest group' theory of financial development. Incumbents oppose financial development because it breeds competition. The theory predicts that incumbents' opposition will be weaker when an economy allows both cross-border trade and capital flows. This theory can go some way in accounting for the cross-country differences and the time series variation of financial development.

Notes:

Print version record

March 2001.