世界経済・社会統計 = World development indicators

In Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson, henceforth AJR, (2001), we advanced the hypothesis that the mortality rates faced by Europeans in different parts of the world after 1500 affected their willingness to establish settlements and choice of colonization strategy. Places that were relatively healthy (for Europeans) were—when they fell under European control—more likely to receive better economic and political institutions. In contrast, places where European settlers were less likely to go were more likely to have “extractive” institutions imposed. We also posited that this early pattern of institutions has persisted over time and influences the extent and nature of institutions in the modern world. On this basis, we proposed using estimates of potential European settler mortality as an instrument for institutional variation in former European colonies today. Data on settlers themselves are unfortunately patchy—particularly because not many went to places they believed, with good reason, to be most unhealthy. We therefore followed the lead of Curtin (1989 and 1998) who compiled data on the death rates faced by European soldiers in various overseas postings. 1 Curtin’s data were based on pathbreaking data collection and statistical work initiated by the British military in the mid-nineteenth century. These data became part of the foundation of both contemporary thinking about public health (for soldiers and for civilians) and the life insurance industry (as actuaries and executives considered the

/pdf/the-colonial-origins-of-comparative-development-an-empirical-4a7vtfps9i.pdf

The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/shleifer/files/ip_corpgov.pdf

Investor Protection and Corporate Governance

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 evidence that the financial development level is a good predictor of future rates of economic growth, capital accumulation, and technological change. Moreover, cross-country, case-style, industry level and firm-level analysis document extensive periods when financial development crucially affects the speed and pattern of economic development. The author explains what the financial system does and how it affects, and is affected by, economic growth. Theory suggests that financial instruments, markets and institutions arise to mitigate the effects of information and transaction costs. A growing literature shows that differences in how well financial systems reduce information and transaction costs influence savings rates, investment decisions, technological innovation, and long-run growth rates. A less developed theoretical literature shows how changes in economic activity can influence financial systems. The author advocates a functional approach to understanding the role of financial systems in economic growth. This approach focuses on the ties between growth and the quality of the functions provided by the financial systems. The author discourages a narrow focus on one financial instrument, or a particular institution. Instead, the author addresses the more comprehensive question: What is the relationship between financial structure and the functioning of the financial system?

/pdf/financial-development-and-economic-growth-views-and-agenda-1isr9l81uu.pdf

Financial development and economic growth : views and agenda

1. Introduction and Overview. 2. Detecting Influential Observations and Outliers. 3. Detecting and Assessing Collinearity. 4. Applications and Remedies. 5. Research Issues and Directions for Extensions. Bibliography. Author Index. Subject Index.

Regression Diagnostics: Identifying Influential Data and Sources of Collinearity

Finance, inequality and the poor [Dataset]

The Microfinance Business Model: Modest Profit and Enduring Subsidy

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 aggregate economic growth. They define an industry's technological firm size as the firm size implied by industrial specific production technologies, including capital intensities and scale economies. Using cross-industry, cross-country data, the results indicate that financial development exerts a disproportionately large effect on the growth of industries that are technologically more dependent on small firms. This suggests that financial development accelerates economic growth by removing growth constraints on small firms and also implies that financial development has sectoral as well as aggregate growth ramifications.

Finance, firm size, and growth

The article connects two streams of recent research on the financial sector. The first is the regulation literature, which emphasises the central role of incentives in the financial sector. It points out that the challenge of financial sector regulation, highlighted by the global financial crisis, is to align private incentives with public interest without taxing or subsidising private risk-taking. The second stream of research relates to financial structures and examines the mix of financial institutions and financial markets in an economy. It finds that, as economies develop, services provided by financial markets become comparatively more important than those provided by banks. The article brings these two streams together, pointing out that — as financial systems develop from bank-based to market-based — a traditional regulatory approach that relies on banking ratios becomes less effective. There is thus a greater need for properly monitoring and addressing the underlying incentive weaknesses in marke...

https://www.niesr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Events/Financial%20structure%20fine%20tuning%20or%20radical%20reform%2022022013/MCihak-ESRC-NIESR%20Conf%202013-02-22.pdf

Financial Structure and Incentives

This paper analyzes the relationship between the relative size of the small and medium enterprise (SME) Sector and the business environment in 76 countries. The paper first describes a new and unique cross-country database that presents consistent and comparable information on the con- tribution of the SME sector to total employment in manufac- turing and GDP across different countries. We then relate the importance of SMEs and the informal economy to indicators of different dimensions of the business environment. We find that several dimensions of the business environment, such as lower costs of entry and better credit information sharing are asso- ciated with a larger size of the SME sector, while higher exit costs are associated with a larger informal economy.

Asli Demirguc-Kunt

Papers

Finance, inequality and the poor [Dataset]

The Microfinance Business Model: Modest Profit and Enduring Subsidy

Finance, firm size, and growth

Financial Structure and Incentives

Small and Medium Enterprises Across