Finance,growth and crisis — A European perspective

The long-held truism that finance is always good for growth has been called into question by the global financial crisis. This article examines new evidence on the finance-growth nexus from a European perspective. More specifically, it compares the approach of many CESEE countries — i.e. financial deepening and integration via foreign banks — with that of the euro area, namely wholesale financial integration but without any instruments for crisis management.