Browsing by Subject "Financial development"

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2

Financial development and its effects on the structure of banking systems, economic growth, and inequality
(2022) Gehrung, Marcel; Burghof, Hans-Peter
Besides the well-known factors for economic growth and income inequality such as globalization, technological progress, demographic change, or human capital acquisition, financial development is often overlooked. This dissertation uses the case of the Single Banking License on the harmonized European Financial Market to show how financial liberalization and the abolishment of financing constraints improve economic growth and closes the gap between top and bottom income shares in the European Union. In the second part of the thesis, with the use of a worldwide data set, we show that the actual access to financial services through a widespread network of bank branches and ATM machines is one of the major channels through which financial development affects economic growth and inequality. These two examples argue in favor of the supply-leading hypothesis of financial development. The third part of the thesis then gives proof for the demand-following side of financial development. By means of a novel and hand-picked data set of historical contracts for contractual saving for housing (Bausparen) from one of the first building societies in the Weimar Republic, the Gemeinschaft der Freunde Wüstenrot, we show how this new financial product spread geographically across the German Empire and across social classes. The fact that especially the upper lower class and lower middle class used CSH most frequently shows that CSH is a prime example of financial development. Meanwhile, the need for this new form of housing finance stems from an insufficient credit supply of common banks and only little subsidies by the state.
The geography of stock exchanges in Imperial Germany
(2014) Lehmann-Hasemeyer, Sibylle; Burhop, Carsten
23 Stock Exchanges were in operation in Germany in 1913. We provide new data about the number of listed firms, their market value, and the number of IPOs between 1897 and 1913 for all exchanges. We assess reasons why a firm opts to be listed at a certain exchange. Large firms tend to be listed and tend to go public at the Berlin Stock Exchange, while the regional stock exchanges were important hosts for small and medium-sized firms. Borders and distance affect listing decisions, suggesting that a patriotic home bias and asymmetric information between issuer and investors affected listing decisions.