This paper presents new and official survey information on bank regulations in 142 countries and makes comparisons with two earlier surveys. The data do not suggest that countries have primarily reformed their bank regulations for the better over the last decade. Following Basel guidelines many...

Joseph Schumpeter argued in 1911 that the services provided by financial intermediaries - mobilizing savings, evaluating projects, managing risk, monitoring managers, and facilitating transactions -stimulate technological innovation and economic development. The authors present evidence that...

For over a century, economists and policy makers have debated the relative merits of bank-based versus market-based financial systems. Recently, however, proponents of the legal-based view of financial development have argued that the century long debate concerning bank-based versus market-based...

This paper examines three questions. First, do countries with relatively weak government/ bureaucratic systems impose harsher regulatory restrictions on activities of banks? Second, do countries with more restrictive regulatory systems have poorly functioning banking systems? Third, do countries...

There is systematic contagion across national borders. Favorable or unfavorable growth performance of one's neighbors tends to influence one's own long-run growth rate. Policy choices are also contagious across borders. While improving policies alone boosts growth substantially, the growth...

AbstractThe following sections are included:IntroductionBank Deregulation and Competition in Nonfinancial IndustriesBlacks’ Relative Wages and the Racial Bias IndexResultsPrerequisitesThe Impact of Deregulation on Blacks’ Relative WagesExtensionsConclusionsReferences

AbstractThe following sections are included:IntroductionFinance and Growth, Inequality, and PovertyBanks, growth, inequality, and the poorCross-country evidenceU.S. evidence on finance, growth, inequality, and the poorBanks, markets, and growthFinancial Innovation and GrowthConclusionsReferences

We disaggregate the self-employed into incorporated and unincorporated to distinguish between "entrepreneurs" and other business owners. We show that the incorporated self-employed and their businesses engage in activities that demand comparatively strong nonroutine cognitive abilities, while...