As a result of the recent financial crisis, there has been significant public debate on the role of the financial sector in bringing about the ""Great Depression."" More generally, there has been debate about whether the current industry structure has enhanced social welfare or served a...

Theory makes ambiguous predictions about the relationship between market structure and competitiveness of the banking system and banking sector stability. Empirical studies focusing on individual countries provide similarly ambiguous results, while cross-country studies point mostly to a...

Contents: Part I Theory and evidence on finance and growth -- 1. Financial development and innovation-led growth / Phillippe Aghion, Peter Howitt and Ross Levine -- 2. Financial structure, economic growth and development / Franklin Allen, Xian Gu and Oskar Kowalewski -- 3. Evidence on finance...