Bank-Based or Market-Based Financial Systems: Which is Better?

NBER Working Paper No. 9138^*
Issued in September 2002
NBER Program(s): CF IFM

---- Abstract -----

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 bank-based or market is not a very fruitful way to distinguish financial systems. This paper represents the first broad, cross-country examination of which view of financial structure is more consistent with the data. The results indicate that although overall financial development is robustly linked with economic growth, there is no support for either the bank-based or market-based view.

^*Published: Levine, Ross. "Bank-based Or Market-based Financial Systems: Which Is Better?," Journal of Financial Intermediation, 2002, v11(4,Oct), 398-428.

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