How do financial development and financial integration interact? We focus on Japan's Great Recession after 1990 to … reference to prefectures' different historical pathways to financial development. After Japan's opening to trade in the 19th …, the main export hub for silk, provided silk reelers with trade loans. Many regional banks in Japan were founded as local …

We exploit the natural experiment of Japan's opening to international trade to examine how comparative advantage can … shape a country's long-run path towards financial development. In the late 19th century, many of Japan's prefectures had a …