Empirical evidence is increasingly emphasising the positive influence of financial markets on the level and the rate of growth of a country's per-capita income. Theoretically, the rationale for the finance-growth nexus appears to be straightforward: in imperfect economies, financial markets...

Theory suggests that the cross-border bank lending flow from rich countries to poor countries is facilitated when lending-related legal and social norms are shared and valued equally by both lenders and borrowers. According to this reasoning the fast adoption of Western-style democracy and...