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Delegated Monitors, Large and Small: The Development of Germany’s Banking System, 1800-1914

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  • Timothy Guinnane

Abstract

Banks play a greater role in the German financial system than in the United States or Britain. Germany’s large universal banks are admired by those who advocate bank deregulation in the United States. Others admire the universal banks for their supposed role in corporate governance and industrial finance. Many discussions distort the German banking system by over-stressing one of several types of banks, and ignore the competition and cooperation between the famous universal banks and other banking groups. Tracing the historical development of the German banking system from the early nineteenth century places the large universal banks in context.

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  • Timothy Guinnane, 2001. "Delegated Monitors, Large and Small: The Development of Germany’s Banking System, 1800-1914," CESifo Working Paper Series 565, CESifo.
  • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_565
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    universal banking; German banks; German economic history;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance
    • N2 - Economic History - - Financial Markets and Institutions

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