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A large literature suggests that European settlement outside of Europe shaped institutional, educational, technological, cultural, and economic outcomes. This literature has had a serious gap: no direct measure of colonial European settlement. In this paper, we (1) construct a new database on the European share of the population during the early stages of colonization and (2) examine its impact on the level of economic development today. We find a remarkably strong impact of colonial European settlement on development. According to one illustrative exercise, 47 percent of average global development levels today are attributable to Europeans. One of our most surprising findings is the positive effect of even a small minority European population during the colonial period on per capita income today, contradicting traditional and recent views. There is some evidence for an institutional channel, but our findings are most consistent with human capital playing a central role in the way that colonial European settlement affects development today.

Zonder onderwerpscode: economie

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"The recent financial crisis was an accident, a 'perfect storm' fueled by an unforeseeable confluence of events that unfortunately combined to bring down the global financial systems. And policy makers? They did everything they could, given their limited authority. It was all a terrible, unavoidable accident. Or at least this is the story told and retold by a chorus of luminaries that includes Timothy Geithner, Henry Paulson, Robert Rubin, Ben Bernanke, and Alan Greenspan. In Guardians of Finance, economists James Barth, Gerard Caprio, and Ross Levine argue that the financial meltdown of 2007 to 2009 was no accident; it was negligent homicide. They show that senior regulatory officials around the world knew or should have known that their policies were destabilizing the global financial system, had years to process the evidence that risks were rising, had the authority to change their policies--and yet chose not to act until the crisis had fully emerged. The current system, the authors write, is simply not designed to make policy choices on behalf of the public. It is virtually impossible for the public and its elected officials to obtain informed and impartial assessment of financial regulation and to hold regulators accountable. Barth, Caprio, and Levine propose a reform to counter this systemic failure: the establishment of a 'Sentinel' to provide an informed, expert, and independent assessment of financial regulation. Its sole power would be to demand information and to evaluate it from the perspective of the public--rather than that of the financial industry, the regulators, or politicians"--Provided by publisher.

Financial crises --- Finance --- -Financial institutions --- Banks and banking --- Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2009 --- Prevention --- Government policy --- Financial institutions --- Global Financial Crisis, 2008-2009. --- Prevention. --- ECONOMICS/Finance

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This paper assesses the impact of the geographic diversification of bank holding company (BHC) assets across the United States on their market valuations. Using two novel identification strategies based on the dynamic process of interstate bank deregulation, we find that exogenous increases in geographic diversity reduce BHC valuations. These findings are consistent with the view that geographic diversity makes it more difficult for shareholders and creditors to monitor firm executives, allowing corporate insiders to extract larger private benefits from firms.

Bank holding companies --- Diversification in industry --- Banks and banking --- Banks and banking, Group --- Holding companies --- Valuation --- Banks and Banking --- Econometrics --- Financial Risk Management --- Macroeconomics --- Demography --- Firm Organization and Market Structure --- Banks --- Depository Institutions --- Micro Finance Institutions --- Mortgages --- Investment Banking --- Venture Capital --- Brokerage --- Ratings and Ratings Agencies --- Estimation --- Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions --- Demographic Economics: General --- International Financial Markets --- Econometric Modeling: General --- Banking --- Econometrics & economic statistics --- Population & demography --- Finance --- Estimation techniques --- Personal income --- Population and demographics --- Asset valuation --- Econometric analysis --- National accounts --- Asset and liability management --- Gravity models --- Econometric models --- Income --- Population --- Asset-liability management --- United States

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This paper introduces the Global Financial Development Database, an extensive dataset of financial system characteristics for 205 economies from 1960 to 2010. The database includes measures of (a) size of financial institutions and markets (financial depth), (b) degree to which individuals can and do use financial services (access), (c) efficiency of financial intermediaries and markets in intermediating resources and facilitating financial transactions (efficiency), and (d) stability of financial institutions and markets (stability). The authors document cross-country differences and time series trends.

Access to Finance --- Banks & Banking Reform --- Debt Markets --- Economic development --- Economic Theory & Research --- Emerging Markets --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial sector --- Financial systems --- Private Sector Development

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This paper provides the first comprehensive documentation of the main features of corporate bond issues in domestic and international markets and analyzes how firms use these markets after they internationalize. We find that debt issues in domestic and international bond markets have different characteristics, not explained by differences across firms or their country of origin. International issues tend to be larger, of shorter maturity, denominated in foreign currency, and include a higher fraction of fixed rate contracts. Moreover, a large proportion of firms remain active in domestic bond markets after accessing international markets, and many of these firms use both markets for different types of issues. This evidence suggests that domestic and international bond markets provide different financial services and are not substitutes, but rather complements.

Zonder onderwerpscode: economie