Historical Causes of Regional Differences in the Predominance of Cooperative Banks – An Empirical Analysis for Germany

Mario Bossler and Christopher Schild

Zeitschrift für das gesamte Genossenschaftswesen, 2014, vol. 64, issue s1, 3-18

Abstract: The share of credit cooperatives in retail banking varies substantially across German regions. Institutional economic theory and anecdotal evidence from the history of the German cooperative sector provide theoretical explanations for these differences. For our analysis we link administrative bank data with historical as well as contemporary regional characteristics. In a county-level regression, we find evidence for both historical institutional and current economic characteristics explaining the degree of credit co­operatives’ activity. Of the historical determinants, differences in the rules of farmland inheritance and 19th century German state borders are strong explanatory factors.

Keywords: Credit Cooperatives; Regional Economic Systems; Historical Institutions; Kreditgenossenschaften; Regionale Wirtschaftssysteme; Historische Institutionen; Credit Cooperatives; Regional Economic Systems; Historical Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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DOI: 10.1515/zfgg-2014-s102

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