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Legal Institutions and Financial Development

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Author Info
Thorsten Beck
Ross Levine

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Abstract

This paper provides a concise, selective review of research on the role of legal institutions in shaping the operation of financial systems. While a burgeoning literature finds that financial development exerts a first-order impact on economic growth, the law and finance literature seeks to understand the role of legal institutions in explaining international differences in financial systems. Considerable research dissects, critiques, and debates the influence of investor protection laws, the efficiency of contract enforcement, and private property rights protection on the effectiveness of corporate governance, the efficient allocation of capital, and the overall level of financial development. Furthermore, legal scholars, political scientists, historians, and economists are questioning and assessing the importance of historically determined differences in legal traditions in shaping national approaches to investor protection laws, contract enforcement, and property rights. The field of law and finance promises to be a contentious and important area of inquiry in coming years.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 10126.

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Date of creation: Dec 2003
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:10126

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Find related papers by JEL classification:
K40 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - General
K22 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Corporation and Securities Law

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  28. Randall Morck & Bernard Yeung & Wayne Wu, 1999. "The Information Content of Stock Markets: Why do Emerging Markets have Synchronous Stock Price Movements?," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 44, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross Business School. [Downloadable!]
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  29. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2002. "Funding growth in bank-based and market-based financial systems: evidence from firm-level data," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(3), pages 337-363, September. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  48. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Levine, Ross, 2003. "Law and finance: why does legal origin matter?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 653-675, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  49. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Levine, Ross, 2003. "Law, endowments, and finance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 137-181, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  52. Daniel Berkowitz & Karina Pistor & Jean-Francois Richard, 2001. "Economic Development, Legality, and the Transplant Effect," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series 410, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan Stephen M. Ross Business School. [Downloadable!]
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  53. Gerard Caprio & Luc Laeven & Ross Levine, 2003. "Governance and Bank Valuation," NBER Working Papers 10158, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  54. Edward L. Glaeser & Andrei Shleifer, 2002. "Legal Origins," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, MIT Press, vol. 117(4), pages 1193-1229, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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