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Culture, Legal Origins, And Financial Development

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  • James B. Ang

Abstract

This study proposes that countries with a cultural orientation toward individualism tend to enjoy a higher level of financial development. Estimates based on cross‐country data lend strong support to this hypothesis. Specifically, the results indicate that existing disparity in the level of financial development is significantly correlated with variation in the extent of individualism across countries, where a one standard deviation increase in individualism is associated with 0.631 standard deviations improvement in the level of financial development. The results are robust to a number of considerations. Additional results provide some support to the notion that individualistic culture and legal origin may serve as complements rather than substitutes to each other. (JEL O40, O50, Z10)

Suggested Citation

  • James B. Ang, 2019. "Culture, Legal Origins, And Financial Development," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 57(2), pages 1016-1037, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecinqu:v:57:y:2019:i:2:p:1016-1037
    DOI: 10.1111/ecin.12755
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    7. Maurya, Garima & Sahu, Sohini, 2022. "Cross-country variations in economic complexity: The role of individualism," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    8. Gur, Nurullah, 2022. "Patience and financial development," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    9. Angeloni, Ignazio & Kasinger, Johannes & Chantawit Tantasith, 2021. "The geography of banks in the United States (1990-2020)," SAFE Working Paper Series 321, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    10. Lu, Weijie & Niu, Geng & Zhou, Yang, 2021. "Individualism and financial inclusion," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 268-288.
    11. Shuguang Jiang & Qian Wei & Luyao Zhang, 2022. "Individualism Versus Collectivism and the Early-Stage Transmission of COVID-19," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 791-821, November.
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    13. Claudia R. Williamson, 2021. "Culture, democracy and regulation," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 98-126, March.
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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O40 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - General
    • O50 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - General
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

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