Why do different countries have such different financial systems? Is one system better than the other? This text argues that the view that market-based systems are best is simplistic, and suggests that a more nuanced approach is necessary.
Written by a team of scholars, predominantly from the Centre for Financial Studies in Frankfurt, this volume provides a descriptive survey of the present state of the German financial system and a new analytical framework to explain its workings.
We compare China's financial system to those of the developed countries, in particular, the US system dominated by financial markets, and the German system dominated by the banking sector. We examine financial systems' properties, including risk sharing, information provision, funding new and mature industries, financial crisis, corporate governance, and the relation between the financial and legal systems and economic growth. We find that there are many fundamental differences between China's financial system and the US system, and simply adopting the US system is not optimal. Understanding the German system and reform China's banking system should be as important as developing US-style financial markets. Our findings also suggest that China differs from most countries studied in the law, finance, and growth and comparative financial systems literature: Despite its poor legal and financial systems, it has the largest, and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. We find that there are effective, informal financing channels and governance mechanisms to support the growth of various firms in the economy. Therefore, it may be best for China to develop its existing financial system, and to ensure that the informal financing channels and governance mechanisms continue to work along with the development of the legal and financial systems.
Collectively, mankind has never had it so good despite periodic economic crises of which the current sub-prime crisis is merely the latest example. Much of this success is attributable to the increasing efficiency of the world's financial institutions as finance has proved to be one of the most important causal factors in economic performance. In a series of insightful essays, financial and economic historians examine how financial innovations from the seventeenth century to the present have continually challenged established institutional arrangements, forcing change and adaptation by governments, financial intermediaries, and financial markets. Where these have been successful, wealth creation and growth have followed. When they failed, growth slowed and sometimes economic decline has followed. These essays illustrate the difficulties of co-ordinating financial innovations in order to sustain their benefits for the wider economy, a theme that will be of interest to policy makers as well as economic historians.
Applying the new economics of organisation and relational theories of the firm to the problem of understanding cross-national variation in the political economy, this volume elaborates a new understanding of the institutional differences that characterise the 'varieties of capitalism' worldwide.