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Law and firms'access to finance

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Author Info
Beck, Thorsten
Demirguc-Kunt, Asli
Levine, Ross

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Abstract

Why does a country's legal origin influence its firms'access to finance? Using data from over 4,000 firms in 38 countries, the authors show that firms in countries with French legal origin face significantly higher obstacles in accessing external finance than firms in common law countries. Next, their results indicate that French legal origin countries tend to have (1) less adaptable legal systems, as defined by the degree to which case law and principles of equity rather than simply statutory law are accepted foundations of legal decisions, and (2) less politically independent judiciaries, as defined by the degree of tenure of supreme court judges and their jurisdiction over cases involving the government. Finally, the authors find that the adaptability of a country's legal system is more important for explaining the obstacles that firms face in contracting for external finance than the political independence of the judiciary. So, they distinguish among competing explanations of why law matters for financial development by empirically documenting the links running from international differences in legal origin to the operation of the financial system at the firm level.

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Paper provided by The World Bank in its series Policy Research Working Paper Series with number 3194.

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Date of creation: 01 Jan 2004
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Handle: RePEc:wbk:wbrwps:3194

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Related research
Keywords: Financial Intermediation; Payment Systems&Infrastructure; Labor Policies; Legal Institutions of the Market Economy; Legal Products; Legal Products; National Governance; Governance Indicators; Legal Institutions of the Market Economy; Judicial System Reform;

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  22. Thorsten Beck & Ross Levine, 2002. "Industry Growth and Capital Allocation: Does Having a Market- or Bank-Based System Matter?," NBER Working Papers 8982, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  23. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2002. "Financial and legal constraints to firm growth - Does size matter?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2784, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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  29. Johnson, Simon & Boone, Peter & Breach, Alasdair & Friedman, Eric, 2000. "Corporate governance in the Asian financial crisis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 141-186. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  30. 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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  31. 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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  32. Mahoney, Paul G, 2001. "The Common Law and Economic Growth: Hayek Might Be Right," Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 30(2), pages 503-25, Part I Ju.
  33. La Porta, Rafael & Lopez-de-Silanes, Florencio & Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert, 2000. "Investor protection and corporate governance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 3-27. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  34. Boyd, John H. & Levine, Ross & Smith, Bruce D., 2001. "The impact of inflation on financial sector performance," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 221-248, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Beck, Thorsten & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Martinez Peria, Maria Soledad, 2006. "Banking services for everyone ? Barriers to bank access and use around the world," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4079, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Beck, Thorsten, 2006. "Creating an efficient financial system : challenges in a global economy," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3856, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  3. Feijen, Erik, 2005. "Do incumbents manipulate access to finance during banking crises?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3660, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  4. John Armour & Simon Deakin & Prabirjit Sarkar & Mathias Siems & Ajit Singh, 2008. "Shareholder Protection and Stock Market Development: An Empirical Test of the Legal Origins Hypothesis," WEF Working Papers 0041, ESRC World Economy and Finance Research Programme, Birkbeck, University of London. [Downloadable!]
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  5. Sonja Fagernäs & Prabirjit Sarkar & Ajit Singh, 2007. "Legal Origin, Shareholder Protection and the Stock Market: New Challenges from Time Series Analysis," ESRC Centre for Business Research - Working Papers wp343, ESRC Centre for Business Research. [Downloadable!]
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  6. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez-de-Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 2007. "The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins," NBER Working Papers 13608, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  7. Demirguc-Kunt, Asli, 2006. "Finance and economic development : policy choices for developing countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3955, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  8. Bruce I. Carlin & Simon Gervais, 2009. "Legal Protection in Retail Financial Markets," NBER Working Papers 14972, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Ross Levine, 2005. "Law, Endowments, and Property Rights," NBER Working Papers 11502, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  10. Simeon Djankov & Caralee McLiesh & Andrei Shleifer, 2005. "Private Credit in 129 Countries," NBER Working Papers 11078, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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  11. Knill, April M., 2008. "Does foreign portfolio investment reach small listed firms ?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3796, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
  12. Christian Hopp & Axel Dreher, 2007. "Do Differences in Institutional and Legal Environments Explain Cross-Country Variations in IPO Underpricing?," CESifo Working Paper Series CESifo Working Paper No. , CESifo Group Munich. [Downloadable!]
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  13. Ayyagari, Meghana & Demirguc-Kunt, Asli & Maksimovic, Vojislav, 2005. "How well do institutional theories explain firms'perceptions of property rights?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3709, The World Bank. [Downloadable!]
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