The telegraph was introduced to China in the late 19th century, a time when China also saw the rise of modern banks. Based on this historical context, this paper documents the importance of information technology in banking development. We constructed a data set on the distributions of telegraph...

The key challenge to assessing the legal origins view of financial development is identifying exogenous changes in legal systems. We assemble new data on the British and French concessions in Shanghai between 1845 and 1936. Two regime changes altered the degree to which the British common and...

We assemble new data on the British and French concessions in Shanghai between 1845 and 1936 to assess the legal origins view of financial development. During this period, two regime changes altered the degree to which the British common and French civil law traditions held jurisdiction over the...