Bank-Based or Market-Based Financial Systems: Which Is Better?

For over a century, economists and policymakers have debated the relative merits of bank-based versus market-based financial systems. Recent research, however, argues that classifying countries as bank- or market-based is not a very fruitful way to distinguish financial systems. This paper represents the first broad, cross-country examination of which view of financial structure is more consistent with the data. The results indicate that although overall financial development is robustly linked with economic growth, there is no support for either the bank-based or the market-based view. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: G0, K2, O4.     

Industry growth and capital allocation:: does having a market- or bank-based system matter?

Are market-based or bank-based financial systems better at financing the expansion of industries that depend heavily on external finance, facilitating the formation of new establishments, and improving the efficiency of capital allocation across industries? We find evidence for neither the market-based nor the bank-based hypothesis. While legal system efficiency and overall financial development boost industry growth, new establishment formation, and efficient capital allocation, having a bank-based or market-based system per se does not seem to matter much.     

Financial Architecture and Economic Performance: International Evidence

The paper examines the relation between the architecture of an economy's financial system—its degree of market orientation—and economic performance in the real sector. I find that while market-based systems outperform bank-based systems among countries with developed financial sectors, bank-based systems fare better among countries with underdeveloped financial sectors. Countries dominated by small firms grow faster in bank-based systems and those dominated by larger firms in market-based systems. The findings suggest that recent trends in financial development policies that indiscriminately prescribe market-oriented financial-system architecture to emerging and transition economies might be misguided because suitable financial architecture, in and of itself, could be a source of value. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: G1, G21, O1, 04.     

Financial crisis,structure and reform

In this study, we examine the relationship between the structure of financial systems and financial crises. Using cross-country data on financial structures and crises, we find that there is a significant short-term reversal in development of the banking sector and the stock market during both bank crises and market crashes, with the corporate bond market moving in the same direction as bank credit. However, the results are significant for countries with market-based financial systems but not for countries with bank-based financial systems. Emerging markets have mainly bank-based financial systems, which may explain why these markets require more time to recover from economic downturns after a financial crisis. Therefore, we argue that governments should emphasize a balanced financial system structure as it helps countries to recover from financial crises more quickly compared with countries that lack such balanced structures.     

Bank-based and market-based financial systems: Time-series evidence

In this paper, we reexamine the relative merits of bank-based and market-based financial systems in promoting long-run economic growth, which has been debated since the 19th century. We find that in the U.S., the U.K., and Japan, the stock market played an important role in financing economic growth, whereas the banking sector played a more important role in Germany, France, and Korea. A more detailed subsample analysis shows that for all countries, the banking sector played an important role in the early years of economic growth. Regarding the causal relation between financial systems and economic growth, except for Korea, all countries show that the financial system leads economic growth. A further analysis shows that the banking sector and the stock market in each country were complementary to each other in each country in the process of economic growth except for the U.S., where the two sectors were mildly substitutable.     

Equity financing and innovation: Is Europe different from the United States?

During the mid and late 1990s young, high-tech firms in the US experienced a supply shift in both internal and external equity fueling a finance-driven boom in corporate R&D. This paper examines whether R&D spending in Europe in a similar way was sensitive to fluctuations in the supply of internal and external equity during the late 1990s and early 2000s. I conjecture that UK and Continental Europe, due to their different financial systems, differ in terms of equity supply. I estimate dynamic R&D regression models for UK and Continental European high-tech firms separately and find significant joint cash-flow effects for newly listed firms in both samples. However, only new firms in the UK experienced a joint external equity effect as well. The findings of this paper suggest a channel through which market-based financial systems outperform the bank-based economies of Continental Europe.     

产业技术进步与金融的市场化趋势:①基于银行与市场功能比较的分析

本文首先回顾了产业技术进步历史上影响最深远的三次技术革命,发现新兴的产业技术几乎都是最初发展于"市场主导型金融体系"的美国、英国。比较而言,"银行主导型金融体系"的日本、德国更擅长于学习和推广成熟技术。本文进而基于银行与市场功能比较的视角,分析了二者对于不同特征产业和处于生命周期不同阶段产业的作用差异,以及二者在风险管理上的功能差异。全文的主要结论是:金融市场对于推动自主创新和技术进步,并有效管理经济体系的风险具有特别重要的意义,中国的金融改革应努力构建一个市场主导型的金融体系。     

Disintermediation and the Role of Banks in Europe: An International Comparison

The paper presents an empirical analysis of the alleged transformation of the financial systems in the three major European economies, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Based on a unified data set developed on the basis of national accounts statistics, and employing a new and consistent method of measurement, the following question is addressed: Is there a general trend toward disintermediation, with banks losing importance to the markets, that is causing these three financial systems to converge? We find that there is neither a general trend toward disintermediation, nor toward a transformation from bank-based to capital market-based financial systems, nor toward a loss of importance of banks. Only in the case of France could strong signs of transformation as well as signs of a general decline in the role of banks be found. Thus the three financial systems also do not seem to be converging. However, there is also a common pattern of change: the intermediation chains are lengthening in all three countries. Nonbank financial intermediaries are taking over a more important role as mobilizers of capital from the nonfinancial sectors. In combination with the trend toward securitization of bank liabilities, this change increases the funding costs of banks and may put banks under pressure. In the case of France, this change is so pronounced that it might even threaten the stability of the financial system. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: G21 and G23.     

Banking system control,capital allocation,and economy performance

We observe less efficient capital allocation in countries whose banking systems are more thoroughly controlled by tycoons or families. The magnitude of this effect is similar to that of state control over banking. Unlike state control, tycoon or family control also correlates with slower economic and productivity growth, greater financial instability, and worse income inequality. These findings are consistent with theories that elite-capture of a country’s financial system can embed “crony capitalism.”     

Optimal bankruptcy laws across different economic systems

We model fundamental differences across economic systems andpropose optimal bankruptcy laws. We show that creditor-debtorrelationships in a given economy are affected by the abilityof creditors to obtain information about fundamentals and themanagers' ability to strategically use their private information.An optimal bankruptcy law utilizes creditors' information whileminimizing managers' use of strategic information. Our proposedlaws for a developed bank-based system like Germany includea creditor chapter only, for a developed market-based systemlike the United States include both a creditor chapter and adebtor chapter, and for an underdeveloped system include botha creditor chapter and a debtor chapter that gives the managermore protection than in a market-based system.     

Financial structure and economic development: Evidence on the view of ‘new structuralism’

This paper examines the relationship between financial structure and economic development for Germany, the USA, France and Turkey between 1989 and 2012. Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lags (NARDL) is employed to investigate whether a dynamic change exists in the financial structure of these countries in response to a change in their stage of economic development as suggested by the view of ‘new structuralism’. Partly in line with the previous literature, which classified the financial systems of Germany as bank-based, the USA as market-based and France and Turkey as in an intermediate position between these two profiles, the findings presented in this work also give credence to ‘new structuralism’ theory on the linkages between financial structure and the stage of development for these four economies.     

法国金融制度:由非典型的银行主导型向市场主导型演进

本文首先从量性分析角度通过对近二三十年来法国非金融企业融资结构和美国、英国、德国与日本的比较,发现了其演变趋势和特征,然后结合对企业同银行与金融市场的关系变化的质性研究,展示了法国金融制度从非典型的银行主导型向市场主导型演进的趋势和脉络,并试图探索这种正在进行的渐进式金融制度变迁的原因。     

Financial System and Housing Price

The 2007/2008 US financial crisis is related to the securitization of mortgage loans and the housing-price boom and bust. In this article, we test the hypothesis that housing-price change is related to the development of the financial system. Using panel data for 23 countries from 1988 to 2012, we have found that the housing-price growth rate increases as the financial system moves a bank orientation to a market orientation. The policy implication is that the government should beware sudden increases in the capital market relative to the banking sector. Especially, more sophisticated financial supervision with respect to housing-price movement is required when a bank-based financial system progresses quickly to a market-oriented financial system.     

金融政策与经济低碳转型——基于增长视角的研究

在“碳中和”目标背景下,本文基于经济“增长”视角,从理论上分析金融政策在经济低碳转型中能够发挥的作用。我们构建了一个包含清洁(绿色)与非清洁(非绿色)生产部门、定向技术进步、金融约束与金融政策的内生增长模型。通过基于模型的理论证明与数值模拟,我们发现:(1)清洁部门相对非清洁部门更强的金融约束会推迟经济低碳转型过程、导致环境恶化,绿色金融政策能够缓解清洁部门的金融约束。(2)绿色金融政策能够增加清洁部门的产量,在一定条件下,还能促进经济实现低碳转型并阻止环境恶化。(3)通过金融政策推动经济低碳转型,相比部分财政政策具有成本效益优势;两类政策存在组合搭配的空间。(4)在疫情冲击后加大绿色金融政策力度,将有益于实现“绿色复苏”,并有可能以相对平时更低的成本,加快“碳达峰”与经济低碳转型的进程。     

金融发展、产业升级与跨越中等收入陷阱——基于新结构经济学的视角

本文在引入结构转型的内生增长理论框架下,重点考察了金融发展(包括金融深化和金融结构)对于产业升级促进作用的动态变化。研究发现,给定一国的发展阶段,不仅存在最优技术进步方式和最优产业结构,还存在一个对于金融深化程度的“最低要求”,低于这一临界值的国家将难以实现下一阶段的产业升级。另一方面,产业升级对金融深化程度的要求并非一成不变,而是随着经济发展呈现出先快速上升、在达到中等收入水平后缓慢递减的特征。在资本积累相对有限的约束条件下,中等收入国家要实现经济增长方式从模仿驱动转向创新驱动,需要首先实现金融深化程度的提升,并推动金融结构转型和制度完善,以实现对创新型产业的有效金融支持,否则很可能陷入“模仿陷阱”,长期徘徊在中等收入水平。本文从新结构经济学的视角,为金融发展与经济发展之间关系的动态变化提供了理论基础,并揭示出跨越中等收入陷阱是一个产业升级、金融发展和制度完善“三位一体”的转型过程。     

Financial development,financial structure,and domestic investment: International evidence

Does it matter for domestic investment whether a country's financial system is bank-based or stock-market based? This paper posits that financial intermediation affects domestic investment notably by alleviating financing constraints, allowing firms to increase investment in response to increased demand for output. The key result is that the structure of the financial system has no independent effect on investment, in the sense that it does not enhance the response of investment to changes in output, while financial development makes investment more responsive to output growth. Consequently, rather than promoting a particular type of financial structure, countries should implement policies that reduce transactions costs in financial intermediation and enforce creditor and investor rights. This will facilitate the development of banks and stock markets, which will stimulate domestic investment.     

Openness,financial structure,and bank risk: International evidence

Using panel data from a large cross-country sample covering 97 countries over the period 1996–2017, we combine 2SLS procedure with system GMM estimation to study the relationship between openness, financial structure and bank risk. The main contribution of the paper is that we identified a new channel, i.e. the financial structure channel, through which financial openness reduces bank risk. In particular, we find that as financial openness increases, a country's financial system tends to be more market-based, and a more market-based financial system is associated with higher bank market power, better information sharing and more revenue diversification, all of which contribute to the reduction in bank risk. We also find that the effect of inflow restrictions on bank risk is more pronounced than that of outflow restrictions. These results highlight the importance of an appropriate design of a country's opening-up strategy to match the evolution of its financial structure to increase bank stability.     

Bank systemic risk and macroeconomic shocks: Canadian and U.S. evidence

This paper investigates how banks, as a group, react to macroeconomic risk and uncertainty; more specifically, it examines the relationship between bank systemic risk and changes and disruptions in economic conditions. Adopting the methodology of Beaudry et al. (2001), we introduce a new estimation procedure based on EGARCH to refine the framework developed by Baum et al., 2002, Baum et al., 2004, Baum et al., 2009 and Quagliariello, 2007, Quagliariello, 2009, and we analyze the relationship in the current industry context—i.e., in the context of market-based banking. Our results confirm that banks tend to behave more homogeneously vis-à-vis macroeconomic uncertainty. In particular, we find that both the cross-sectional dispersion of loans-to-assets and the cross-sectional dispersion of non-interest income share shrink during slow growth episodes, and particularly during financial crises, when the resilience of the banking system is at its lowest. More importantly, our main findings indicate that the cross-sectional dispersion of loans-to-assets has increased in the last decade, whereas the cross-sectional dispersion of non-interest income share appears to be more volatile and sensitive to macroeconomic shocks.     

Back to the basics in banking? A micro-analysis of banking system stability

This paper analyzes the relationship between banks’ divergent strategies toward specialization and diversification of financial activities and their ability to withstand a banking sector crash. We first generate market-based measures of banks’ systemic risk exposures using extreme value analysis. Systemic banking risk is measured as the tail beta, which equals the probability of a sharp decline in a bank’s stock price conditional on a crash in a banking index. Subsequently, the impact of (the correlation between) interest income and the components of non-interest income on this risk measure is assessed. The heterogeneity in extreme bank risk is attributed to differences in the scope of non-traditional banking activities: non-interest generating activities increase banks’ tail beta. In addition, smaller banks and better-capitalized banks are better able to withstand extremely adverse conditions. These relationships are stronger during turbulent times compared to normal economic conditions. Overall, diversifying financial activities under one umbrella institution does not improve banking system stability, which may explain why financial conglomerates trade at a discount.     

Banking crises,financial dependence,and growth

This paper contributes to the literature that analyzes the mechanisms linking financial shocks and real activity. In particular, we investigate the growth impact of banking crises on industries with different levels of dependence on external finance. If banks are the key institutions allowing credit constraints to be relaxed, then a sudden loss of these intermediaries in a system in which such intermediaries are important should have a disproportionately contractionary impact on the sectors that flourished due to their reliance on banks. Using data from 38 developed and developing countries that experienced financial crises during the last quarter century, we find that those sectors that are highly dependent on external finance tend to experience a substantially greater contraction of value added during a banking crisis in countries with deeper financial systems than in countries with shallower financial systems. Our results do not suggest, however, that on net the externally dependent firms fare worse in deep financial systems.