Although Kenya's financial system is by far the largest and most developed in East Africa and its stability has improved significantly over the past years, many challenges remain. This paper assesses the stability, efficiency, and outreach of Kenya's banking system, using aggregate, bank-level,...

This paper combines firm-level data from 89 countries with updated country-level data on financial structure, and uses two estimation approaches. It finds that in low-income countries, labor growth is swifter in countries with a higher level of private credit/gross domestic product; the positive...

I. FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES IN EUROPE -- Markets and institutions in the rise of London as a financial center in the seventeenth century Larry Neal, Stephen Quinn -- Paris Bourse, 1724-1814: experiments in microstructure Eugene N. White -- No exit: notarial bankruptcies and the evolution of...

Intro -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction: Miracles, Myths, and Explanations in Economic History -- 1. Space and Politics -- 2. Population, Resources, and Economic Growth -- 3. Formal and Informal Mechanisms for Market Development -- 4. Warfare, Location of Manufacturing, and Economic Growth...

Main description: Why did sustained economic growth arise in Europe rather than in China? The authors combine economic theory and historical evidence to argue that political processes drove the economic divergence between the two world regions, with continued consequences today that become clear...