Thorsten Beck's research while affiliated with University of Malaya and other places
What is this page?
This page lists the scientific contributions of an author, who either does not have a ResearchGate profile, or has not yet added these contributions to their profile.
It was automatically created by ResearchGate to create a record of this author's body of work. We create such pages to advance our goal of creating and maintaining the most comprehensive scientific repository possible. In doing so, we process publicly available (personal) data relating to the author as a member of the scientific community.
If you're a ResearchGate member, you can follow this page to keep up with this author's work.
If you are this author, and you don't want us to display this page anymore, please let us know.
It was automatically created by ResearchGate to create a record of this author's body of work. We create such pages to advance our goal of creating and maintaining the most comprehensive scientific repository possible. In doing so, we process publicly available (personal) data relating to the author as a member of the scientific community.
If you're a ResearchGate member, you can follow this page to keep up with this author's work.
If you are this author, and you don't want us to display this page anymore, please let us know.
Publications (188)
Using data on over 5,500 Ethiopian retailers, we document that there is lower use of trade credit in areas with more access to bank finance. Among firms within an area, although receiving trade credit increases the use of a bank loan by informal firms, it has no association with the use of bank loans for formal firms. This result suggests that fina...
We explore the empirical interaction between firm growth, financing constraints, and job creation. Using a novel small-business survey from Uganda, we find that the extent to which small businesses expand skilled employment as their sales and profits increase is significantly related to access to external funding, while the hiring of casual and fam...
This paper studies the effects of a payment technology innovation (mobile money) on entrepreneurship and economic development in a quantitative dynamic general equilibrium model. In the model mobile money dominates fiat money as a medium of exchange, since it avoids the risk of theft, but comes with electronic transaction costs. We show that entrep...
We use a novel enterprise survey to gauge the relationship between saving instruments and entrepreneurial reinvestment. We show that while most informal saving practices are not associated with a lower likelihood of reinvestment when compared with formal saving practices, there is a significantly lower association of saving within the household wit...
We conduct face-to-face interviews with bank chief executive officers to classify 397 banks across 21 countries as relationship or transaction lenders. We then use the geographic coordinates of these banks' branches and of 14,100 businesses to analyze how the lending techniques of banks near firms are related to credit constraints at two contrastin...
This paper studies the effects of gender interactions on the supply of and demand for credit using data from a large Albanian lender. We document that first-time borrowers assigned to officers of the opposite sex are less likely to return for a second loan. The effect is larger when officers have little prior exposure to borrowers of the other gend...
If treated as a single economy, the European Union is the largest in the world, with an estimated GDP of over 14 trillion euros. Despite its size, European economic policy has often lagged behind the rest of the world in its ability to generate growth and innovation. Much of the European economic research itself often trails behind that of the USA,...
Can distance-related information asymmetries in credit markets be overcome with contract design and credit scoring models? To answer this question, we explore differences in foreign and domestic banks' credit contract terms and pricing models. Using a sample of firms that borrow from both domestic and foreign banks in the same month, we show that f...
This paper analyzes differences in loan performance across two Montenegrin microfinance institutions with different lending techniques using a sample of individuals borrowing from both institutions. We make use of administrative data from both institutions over the period 2004–2013. While one institution relies on village associations for screening...
Using a novel way to identify relationship and transaction banks, we study how banks’ lending techniques affect funding to SMEs over the business cycle. For 21 countries we link the lending techniques that banks use in the direct vicinity of firms to these firms’ credit constraints at two contrasting points of the business cycle. We show that relat...
Based on data from 32 countries over the period 1996-2010, this paper is the first to assess the relationship between financial innovation, on the one hand, and bank growth and fragility, as well as economic growth, on the other hand. We find that different measures of financial innovation, capturing both a broad concept and specific innovations, a...
This paper surveys the recent academic literature on the economics of cross-border regulatory cooperation as well as recent policy developments in this area. While institutional arrangements of cross-border regulatory cooperation used to focus on day-to-day supervisory tasks, the crisis has given an impetus to a focus on cooperation at the bank res...
The Oxford Handbook of Banking, second edition provides an overview and analysis of developments and research in banking written by leading researchers in the field. This handbook will appeal to graduate students of economics, banking and finance, academics, practitioners, regulators and policymakers. Consequently, the book strikes a balance betwee...
This article provides an introduction to the JMCB special issue on housing bubbles, the global financial crisis, and the ensuing recessions in countries that experienced housing busts. We focus on five themes that are important for policymakers and researchers alike: the domestic and international factors driving housing booms and busts, the releva...
Using a novel enterprise survey from Kenya (FinAccess Business), we document a strong positive association between the use of mobile money as a method to pay suppliers and access to trade credit. We develop a dynamic general equilibrium model with heterogeneous entrepreneurs, imperfect credit markets and the risk of theft to account for this empiri...
This paper uses cross-country firm-level surveys to gauge access to financial services and the importance of financing constraints
for African enterprises. We compare access to finance in Africa and other developing regions of the world, within Africa across
countries, and across different groups of firms. We relate firms' access to finance to firm...
The recent financial crisis has stimulated theoretical and empirical research on the propagation mechanisms underlying business cycles, in particular on the role of financial frictions. Many issues concerning the interactions between banking and monetary policy forced policy makers to redefine economic policies, and motivated macroeconomists to foc...
This articleintroduces a special issue on lessons from the recent crisis on finance, growth, and stability. The papers in the special issue discuss (i) the benefits and risks of financial innovation and regulatory responses to these risks, (ii) the effect of finance and globalization on the real economy, and (iii) the role of government in providin...
This article provides an introduction to the special issue. We focus on four themes that are important for policymakers and researchers alike in view of the experiences of the global financial crisis of 2007–09 and the ensuing sovereign debt crisis in the euro area: the relevance of the banking sector for the real economy, the future structure and...
This paper gauges the effect of financial deepening and bank outreach on informality using micro data from the Indian manufacturing sector and exploiting cross-industry variation in the need for external finance. We distinguish between two channels through which access to finance can reduce informality: reducing the entry barrier to the formal sect...
Banking in Africa: A Progress Report
This paper discusses recent progress in financial deepening across Sub-Saharan Africa. Using an array of different data, we document that African banking systems are shallow but stable. African banks are well capitalized and over-liquid, but lend less to the private sector than banks in non-African developing co...
We use a novel enterprise survey from Tanzania to gauge the relationship between saving instruments and entrepreneurial reinvestment. While most informal savings practices do not imply a lower likelihood of entrepreneurial reinvestment when compared with formal savings practices, we find a significantly negative effect of saving within the househol...
Using a novel way to identify relationship and transaction banks, we study how banks’ lending techniques affect funding to SMEs over the business cycle. For 21 countries we link the lending techniques that banks use in the direct vicinity of firms to these firms’ credit constraints at two contrasting points of the business cycle. We show that relat...
Financial globalization, the integration of countries with the global financial system, has increased substantially since the 1970s and particularly with more force since the 1990s. Financial globalization has shown to pose both benefits and risks to developed countries and developing countries alike. The Handbook of Financial Globalization aims at...
Banks in Europe: The Impact of the Recent Regulatory Reforms
European countries have undertaken a large number of regulatory reforms since the outburst of the financial crisis or are in the process of doing so. These reforms range from higher capital and liquidity requirements for banks, to size and activity restrictions and a banking union for the...
This paper surveys the recent literature on the relationship between SMEs, financial deepening and economic development. While a large SME sector is not associated with faster economic growth or poverty alleviation, financial deepening can have a pro-growth and pro-poor impact by alleviating SMEs’ financing constraints, enabling firm entry and entr...
We show the existence of an unconditional gender gap in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, when key observable characteristics of the enterprises or individuals are taken into account the gender gap disappears. In the case of enterprises, we explain our finding with differences in key characteristics and a potential selection bias. In the case of individ...
Using state-level data from India over the period 1983 to 2005, this paper gauges the effect of financial deepening and outreach on rural poverty. Following the 1991 liberalization episode, we find a strong negative relationship between financial deepening, rather than financial breadth, and rural poverty. Instrumental variable regressions suggest...
Following the June 2012 European Council decision to place the ‘Single Supervisory Mechanism’ (SSM) within the European Central Bank, the general presumption in the policy discussions has been that there should be ‘Chinese walls’ between the supervisory and monetary policy arms of the ECB. The current legislative proposal, in fact, is explicit on t...
This paper introduces the concept of the financial possibility frontier as a constrained optimum level of financial development to gauge the relative performance of financial systems across the globe. This frontier takes into account structural country characteristics, institutional, and macroeconomic factors that impact financial system deepening....
This paper offers a critical survey of the literature on the role of financial deepening in economic development, focusing on the role of government. Specifically, I distinguish between the policy view that relates financial sector development to an array of necessary policies and institutions, the historic view that relates financial sector develo...
Experts report on the latest research on extending access to financial services to the 2.5 billion adults around the world who lack it.
About 2.5 billion adults, just over half the world's adult population, lack bank accounts. If we are to realize the goal of extending banking and other financial services to this vast “unbanked” population, we need...
The financial crisis that began in 2008 and its lingering aftermath have caused many intellectuals and politicians to question the virtues of capitalist systems. This book analyzes both the strengths and weaknesses of capitalist systems. The volume opens with articles on the historical and legal origins of capitalism. These are followed by articles...
This paper documents large cross-country variation in the relationship between bank competition and bank stability and explores market, regulatory and institutional features that can explain this variation. We show that an increase in competition will have a larger impact on banks’ fragility in countries with stricter activity restrictions, lower s...
This paper uses survey data for over 23,000 households from 28 transition countries in 2010 to explore how the use of household credit is related to foreign bank ownership. In countries with higher foreign bank presence we find a stronger relation between household income, education and employment status and the use of credit cards and mortgages. O...
Financial systems all over the world have grown dramatically over recent decades. But is more finance necessarily better? And what concept of finance – the size of the financial sector, including both intermediation and other auxiliary “non-intermediation” activities, or a focus on traditional intermediation activity – is relevant for its impact on...
This paper analyzes the distortions that banks’ cross-border activities, such as foreign assets, deposits and equity, can introduce into regulatory interventions. We find that while each individual dimension of cross-border activities distorts the incentives of a domestic regulator, a balanced amount of cross-border activities does not necessarily...
Do domestic and foreign banks differ in their lending techniques and loan pricing models? Are such differences driven by different clienteles? Using a sample of firms that borrow from both domestic and foreign banks in the same month, we show significant differences in lending techniques and loan pricing. Foreign banks charge lower interest rates,...
This paper documents large cross-country variation in the relationship between bank competition and bank stability and explores market, regulatory and institutional features that can explain this variation. We show that an increase in competition will have a larger impact on banks’ fragility in countries with stricter activity restrictions, lower s...
“Everybody talks about financial innovation, but (almost) nobody empirically tests hypotheses about it”. Frame and White (2004)The financial turmoil from 2007 onwards has spurred renewed debates on the “bright” and “dark” sides of financial innovation. Using bank-, industry- and country-level data for 32, mostly high-income, countries between 1996...
This paper analyzes the distortions that banks' cross-border activities, such as assets, deposits and equity, can introduce in the regulatory process. We find that while each individual dimension of cross-border activities dis-torts the incentives of a domestic regulator, a balanced amount of cross-border activities does not necessarily cause ineff...
We study the effects of own-gender preferences on the supply of and demand for credit using data from a large Albanian lender. Exploiting the quasi-random assignment of borrowers to loan officers we find that borrowers matched to officers of the opposite sex are less likely to return for a second loan. The effect is larger when officers have little...
Theoretical and empirical research has shown that a sound and effective financial system is critical for economic development and growth. The financial system, however, is also subject to boom and bust cycles and fragility, with negative repercussions for the real economy. Further, the political structure of societies, often pre-determined by histo...
This paper examines the effects of group identity in the credit market. Exploiting the quasi-random assignment of first-time borrowers to loan officers of a large Albanian lender, we test for own-gender bias in the loan officer-borrower match. We find that borrowers pay on average 29 basis points higher interest rates when paired with a loan office...
Combining two unique data sets, this paper explores the relationship between the relative importance of different financial institutions and their average size and firms' access to financial services. Specifically, the authors explore the relationship between the share in total financial assets and average asset size of banks, low-end financial ins...
This paper uses survey data for 60,000 households from 29 transition economies in 2006 and 2010 to explore how the use of banking services is related to household characteristics, as well as to bank ownership, deposit insurance and creditor protection. At the household level we find that the holding of a bank account, a bank card, or a mortgage inc...
Theoretical models and empirical results over conflicting evidence on the relationship between bank competition and bank stability. This paper aims to reconcile the seemingly contrasting evidence on the bank competition-bank soundness relationship. We develop a uni
ed framework to assess how regulation, supervision and other institutional factors m...
This paper assesses whether there is a gender gap in the use of financial services by businesses and individuals in Sub-Saharan Africa. The authors do not find evidence of gender discrimination or lower inherent demand for financial services by enterprises with female ownership participation or by female individuals when key characteristics of the...
This paper shows that the finance and growth relationship is as important in resource-based economies as in other economies. This paper also documents less developed financial systems in resource-based economies and banks that are more liquid, better capitalized and more profitable, but give fewer loans to firms. Firms in resource-based economies u...
Understanding the role of banks in cross-border finance has become an urgent priority after the recent crisis where they played a central role. This report argues that policy reforms in micro-and macro-prudential regulation and macroeconomic policies are needed for Europe to reap the important diversification and efficiency benefits from cross-bord...
This paper discusses Islamic banking products and interprets them in the context of financial intermediation theory. Anecdotal evidence shows that many of the conventional products can be redrafted as Sharia-compliant products, so that the differences are smaller than expected. Comparing conventional and Islamic banks and controlling for other bank...
Although Kenya's financial system is by far the largest and most developed in East Africa and its stability has improved significantly over the past years, many challenges remain. This paper assesses the stability, efficiency, and outreach of Kenya's banking system, using aggregate, bank-level, and survey data. Banks' asset quality and liquidity po...
We assess the impact of bank deregulation on the distribution of income in the United States. From the 1970s through the 1990s, most states removed restrictions on intrastate branching, which intensified bank competition and improved bank performance. Exploiting the cross-state, cross-time variation in the timing of branch deregulation, we find tha...
Using a unique data set for a commercial bank in Albania, we analyze gender differences in loan officers' performance. Loans screened and monitored by female loan officers have a lower likelihood to turn problematic than loans handled by male loan officers. This effect cannot be explained by borrower or loan officer selection or differences in scre...
This article introduces the updated and expanded version of the Financial Development and Structure Database. The database includes indicators on the size, efficiency, and stability of banks, nonbank financial institutions, and equity and bond markets over 1960--2007. It also contains indicators of financial globalization. Copyright The Author 2010...
Recently, developing countries have witnessed a sharp increase in foreign bank participation. We examine the impact on banking outreach using newly gathered data for Mexico, where foreign bank participation rose from 2% to 83% of assets during 1997-2005. Country-, bank-, and bank-municipality-level estimations show a decline in the number of deposi...
Household credit, especially for mortgages, has doubled over the past years in the new European Union member countries, raising concerns about the economic and social consequences of household indebtedness in the event of a macroeconomic crisis. Using household survey data for 2005, 2006, and 2007 for both old and new European Union members, this p...
The recent crisis has led to a thriving academic and policy debate on the future regulation of financial institutions and markets. This paper argues that the objective of securing financial stability should be balanced with the goal of fostering financial deepening and efficiency, especially in emerging markets. This would require a market-harnessi...
Remittances are a substantial source of external financing for developing countries that influence many aspects of their development. Though research has shown that remittances are both expensive and price sensitive, little is known about what explains their price. Newly gathered data across 119 country pairs or corridors are used to explore the fa...
Using data for 91 large banks from 45 countries, this paper finds that foreign, domestic private, and government-owned banks
use different lending technologies and organizational structures for SME financing. The extent, type, and pricing of SME loans,
however, is not strongly correlated with lending technologies and organizational structures, sugg...
In spite of shallow financial markets, Sub-Saharan Africa will not escape the repercussions of the global financial crisis. The global turmoil threatens the progress Sub-Saharan Africa has made in financial sector deepening and broadening over the recent years and underlines the importance of continuing and deepening the necessary institutional ref...
While theory predicts different effects of household credit and enterprise credit on the economy, the empirical literature has mainly used aggregate measures of overall bank lending to the private sector. We construct a new dataset from 45 developed and developing countries, decomposing bank lending into lending to enterprises and lending to househ...
This paper introduces the updated and expanded version of the Financial Development and Structure Database and presents recent trends in structure and development of financial institutions and markets across countries. The authors add indicators on banking structure and financial globalization. They find a deepening of both financial markets and in...
In many developing countries less than half the population has access to formal financial services, and in most of Africa less than one in five households has access. Lack of access to finance is often the critical mechanism for generating persistent income inequality, as well as slower economic growth. Hence expanding access remains an important c...
This paper investigates whether integration with global markets affects the financing choices of firms from East Asia and Latin America. Using a firm-level panel for the 1980s and 1990s, we study how leverage ratios, debt maturity structure, and sources of financing change when economies are liberalized and when firms access international equity an...
What if any is the impact of the gender of a loan officer on loan default risk? Using a unique data set for a microbank in Albania over the period 1996 to 2006, we find that loans handled by female loan officers show significantly lower default rates than loans handled by male loan officers, controlling for a variety of borrower, loan, and loan off...
Using international comparisons and a unique bank-level dataset on the Ugandan banking system over the period 1999 to 2005, we explore the factors behind consistently high interest rate spreads and margins. International comparisons show that the small size of Ugandan banks, persistently high T-Bill rates and institutional deficiencies explain larg...
Using a unique bank-level panel dataset over the period 1995 to 2007, this paper assesses the stability of German banks with different ownership structures. Using three different measures of bank stability – the z-score, a standard measure of distance from insolvency, non-performing loans, and distress probabilities derived from hazard models – we...
This chapter reviews different econometric methodologies to assess the relationship between financial development and growth. It illustrates the identification problem, which is at the center of the finance and growth literature, using the example of a simple ordinary least squares estimation. It discusses cross-sectional and panel instrumental var...
Using data from a survey of 91 banks in 45 countries, the authors characterize bank financing to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) around the world. They find that banks perceive the SME segment to be highly profitable, but perceive macroeconomic instability in developing countries and competition in developed countries as the main obstacles. To...
This paper presents data on 76 partial credit guarantee schemes across 46 developed and developing countries. Based on theory, we discuss different organizational features of credit guarantee schemes and their variation across countries. We focus on the respective role of government and private sector and different pricing and risk reduction tools...
Recent data compilations show that many poor and nonpoor people in many developing countries face a high degree of financial exclusion and high barriers in access to finance. Theory and empirical evidence point to the critical role that improved access to finance has in promoting growth and reducing income inequality. An extensive literature shows...
Using a firm-level survey database covering 48 countries, we investigate how financial and institutional development affects financing of large and small firms. Our database is not limited to large firms but includes small and medium-size firms and data on a broad spectrum of financing sources, including leasing, supplier, development, and informal...
While the theoretical and empirical finance literature has focused almost exclusively on enterprise credit, about half of credit extended by banks to the private sector in a sample of 45 developing and developed countries is to households. The share of household credit in total credit increases as countries grow richer and financial systems develop...
Drawing on an original cross-country dataset on deposit insurance systems, an assessment of the impact of deposit insurance on banking outcomes and the policy implications for developing countries.
Explicit deposit insurance (DI) is widely held to be a crucial element of modern financial safety nets. For this reason, establishing a DI system is fre...
Capitalizing on recent improvements in the availability of cross-country financial sector data, this paper proposes a standard methodology for benchmarking the policy component of financial development. Systematic controls are introduced to isolate main structural country characteristics and a principal components analysis is used to help identify...
Theory makes ambiguous predictions about the relationship between market structure and competitiveness of the banking system and banking sector stability. Empirical studies focusing on individual countries provide similarly ambiguous results, while cross-country studies point mostly to a positive relationship between competition and stability in th...
Although research shows that financial development accelerates aggregate economic growth, economists have not resolved conflicting theoretical predictions and ongoing policy disputes about the cross-firm distributional effects of financial development. Using cross-industry, cross-country data, the results are consistent with the view that financial...
Recently, developing countries have witnessed a sharp increase in foreign bank participation. The authors examine the impact on banking outreach using newly gathered data for Mexico, where foreign bank participation rose from 2 percent to 83 percent of assets during 1997-2005. Country-, bank-, and bank-municipality level estimations show a decline...
This paper provides a survey on studies that analyze the macroeconomic effects of intellectual property rights (IPR). The first part of this paper introduces different patent policy instruments and reviews their effects on R&D and economic growth. This part also discusses the distortionary effects and distributional consequences of IPR protection a...
Policymakers and economists disagree about the impact of bank regulations on the distribution of income. Exploiting cross-state and cross-time variation, we test whether liberalizing restrictions on intra-state branching in the United States intensified, ameliorated, or had no effect on income distribution. We find that branch deregulation lowered...
This paper is a first attempt at measuring financial sector outreach and investigating its determinants. First, we present new indicators of banking sector outreach across 99 countries, constructed from aggregate data provided by bank regulators. Second, we show that our indicators closely predict harder-to-collect micro-level statistics of househo...
Citations
... King & Levine (1993) and Levine (2005) find a strong link between lower aggregated risk in the economy or better risk pooling and increases in economic growth. This is one of the ways in which finance has been found to foster development (Beck, 2012). In what pertain to bear phases as identified by the long-run indicator, we find that said phases are shorter, less severe and have, on average, higher (less negative) average amplitude during the post-reform period. ...
... Therefore, empowerment must be carried out structured and sustainably, aiming to increase productivity and competitiveness and foster strong new entrepreneurs. It is in line with Ayyagari et al. (2018), who argued that MSMEs have always been the dominant type of business. Business actors in this category have a quite diverse contribution to GDP but always have a significant value in absorbing labor. ...
... Therefore, the financial sector's development and the institutions' quality are increasingly essential to BRI's sustainable growth. Furthermore, a country's financial development level is determined through structural characteristics (Growth, demographics, age dependency, population, and other fundamentals) outside policy controls [19]. Considering benchmarks are calculated using structural variables. ...