Financial Structure and Economic Growth Nexus Revisited

Abstract

This paper empirically reassesses the long-debated relationship between financial structure and economic growth. Specifically, we examine whether the effect of financial structure on economic growth is affected by the financial structure disproportion, banking crisis, economic volatility, and level of financial development. We employ the generalized method of moments estimation to a large panel of 100 countries over the 1971-2015 period. Although the main result supports market-based view, the positive effect of stock market development relative to banking system decreases significantly if financial structure is unbalanced. Our findings are robust to a variety of sensitivity check, including different measures of financial structure, periods, and model specifications.

Keywords: financial structure, unbalanced financial system, economic growth, generalized method of moments

JEL Classification: E44, G20, O16