This paper is one of the two introductory chapters of the book "The German Financial System". It first discusses two issues that have a general bearing on the entire book, and then provides a broad overview of the German financial system.

Individual financial systems can be understood as very specific configurations of certain keyelements. Often these configurations remain unchanged for decades. We hypothesize that thereis a specific relationship between key elements, namely that of complementarity. Thus,complementarity seems to...

This paper discusses whether, in which respects, and to what extent the corporate governancesystems of Germany, the United Kingdom and France have already converged in the course ofEuropean economic integration, or are likely to converge in the foreseeable future. Wepresent, and attempt to...