Historical evidence on the finance-trade-growth nexus

B-Tier
Journal: Journal of Banking & Finance
Year: 2012
Volume: 36
Issue: 4
Pages: 1236-1243

Score contribution per author:

1.005 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 1.0x B-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We study linkages between financial development, international trade, and long-run growth using data since 1880 for 17 now-developed “Atlantic” economies and a set of cross country and dynamic panel data models. We find that finance and trade reinforce each other in data before 1930, but that these effects do not persist after the Second World War. Financial development affects growth positively throughout the sample period, while trade affects growth strongly and independently after 1945. We attribute the rising importance of trade to major post-World War II changes in tariffs and quantity restrictions associated with the GATT, the establishment of the European Common Market, and the gradual elimination of capital controls after 1973. The findings are robust to the use of ‘deep’ fundamentals such as legal origin and indicators of the political environment as instruments for financial development and trade. Financial development, however, links more closely than trade to these fundamentals.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:jbfina:v:36:y:2012:i:4:p:1236-1243
Journal Field
Finance
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-24